Growth of a Shinobi
by Nuebus
Summary: Uzumaki Naruto, taken as a child by the Mist. Raised to be a weapon which was doomed to failure by his trust in his teachers. This is his story. Rated M for Mature on future gore. AU, Specialised!Naruto.
1. Prologue

Growth of a Shinobi

_As this is probably my first serious fic, I won't say anything and just get on with the story._

_ DISCLAIMER: I don't own Naruto._

**Prologue**:_  
_

Uzumaki Naruto stared out from his hill. It had been four, no, five years since he had come into human contact. He was perhaps the youngest hermit yet. He chuckled at that thought. He did not know his own history, he was only told that he would be raised as a Mist Shinobi. He had been born into the Leaf, that much he knew. How he had gotten into the Mist, he had yet to work out. His earliest memories were of a man, towering over him, his silhouetted in the sun, shadowing his figure.

"You will be a God amongst men."

Those were the earliest words said to him. He never understood how, or why. What he did know was ever since childhood, he had been trained by the best. The Seven Swordsmen of the Mist. Each training session was a gruelling ordeal for the child back then. He was taught to wield the blade, to use it with lethality. He was taught how to fight other Swordsmen and Shinobi. He was born to kill.

His training had been split by the Six Master Swordsmen still loyal to the Mist as Daimyo Killer Kisame had already done his deeds. Out of the six, the most personal of his trainers was Momochi Zabuza. Naruto looked up to the masked Shinobi like a son would look to a father. Since awareness had come to the child, Zabuza had always been a constant, as a father, trainer, brother and master. No surprise that when Momochi had explained to the then seven year old child of his plot to assassinate the Mizukage and lead the Mist to its former glory he had pledged his support to his master. Then it had failed.

One of the earliest things he had been taught, along with his difficult Chakra control, was to always win. If you cannot win, do the next best thing. At the beginning of the rebellion, Naruto had already seen its future failure. There was just too many loyal to the Mizukage to succeed. Of course, Zabuza directly assaulted the Mizukage in an attempt to kill him in the chaos of the battle within the Hidden Village's walls. Naruto had made his way up into the Tower to try to support his Master in some way, small or large. As he watched , hidden against a wall, he knew Zabuza would lose. So he did as the Lessons taught him, he did the next best thing. As the chaos surrounded the Tower, its guards were lacking, he had snuck into the Vault. The Vault was simply a safe to hold the secrets of the Mist, Bloodline Limits, Ninjutsu skills, Taijutsu skills and Gengutsu skills. Normally, it is guarded by at least three Jounin, but considering the battle, there were none. Naruto had grabbed as many as he could with his childish hands and then dashed out the window.

The next day, in the aftermath of the battle, all supporters of Momochi Zabuza was considered a Missin-Nin, those that were not Shinobi were thrown into prison for life and those that resisted were execute on the spot. The Headquarters of the Rebellion was raided and as such, Naruto had no place to go and find his Master. He fled, as far and wide away from the Mist as possible. Six days of constant travel, making only stops to appease his bodily functions did he stop.

He was on a high hill, surrounded by forest with none of the cold and dampness. From what he could make out, it looked like one of those fairytale lands in the stories. The grass was a beautiful green, the hill overlooked an enormous lake, and the sunset dyed the sky crimson. In that moment, Naruto decided this would be his home.

As a student of the Swordsmasters, he had been given a sword, at his childish height back then, barely 4 feet, he was given a weapon that would fit him. He was given a straight blade, a cleaver very similar to Zabuza's. While made well, in smithing and tempering, it had nothing in comparison of size to the monstrosity of a blade that his former Master used. It was barely a meter long and its flat was just half of that of _Kubikiri Houcho's_ flat side. Kubikiri Houcho, Zabuza blade, and probably one of the names that had been ingrained into Naruto's head. With the blade he had been given, as he grew he realised that it would no longer fit him to use. Living alone for five years had given him ample time for physical training and ample space to grow. He was currently wearing home-sewed clothing, taught by chance to one of his more feminine teachers. He wore grey pants with which had some faded blue patches on it, held up by a black sash tied around his waist. His torso bore a faded blue shirt with its fragile sleeves rolled up at the elbows with a pair of black wrist guards. He wore traditional Shinobi footwear, black sandals and his slashed Mist Forehead-Protector was worn at its place at his forehead. His sword, being small enough for his 5'7 frame, was worn at his waist, it hanging diagonally at his back.

Five years he had practised and honed his skills to be ready for the real world. He knew he could not do without human contact, as little humanity he had. He was a Nukenin, a criminal, if any Shinobi happened upon him, he would be taken as the criminal he was if he could not defend himself. At first the training was simply to defend himself at his Sanctuary, but then he had the yearning for intelligent contact. Afterall, talking to your sword could only keep the insanity at bay for so long. He had trained to survive if he was attacked, but then began training to survive when he left.

The scrolls he had provided himself were useful for him to learn. Some were just about basics like _Kawaramis_, however some had the rather destructive jutsu's like the_ Suiton: Suiryuidan._ Others were about upper class swordsmen techniques to both defend and attack. One of the larger scrolls had an entire style neatly printed down, the Forbidden technique and style of Daimyo Killer Kisame. In his training, he had compared the successes of the Seven Swordsmen and pinned down who he admired and respected. Hoshigake Kisame wassomeone to be reckoned with, as per his reputation, Zabuza was well respected in his mind due to his ability in fighting off so many Mist Jounin to get at the Mizukage so he created his own techniques and style with what Zabuza taught him and what the scroll taught him, of course, he needed a bigger sword to take the style into its real power, but even then, he thought himself quite formidable.

His personal favourite techniques would be the _Mizu Bunshin_, _Suiryuudan_ and the _Ninpou- Kirigakure no Jutsu_. However, his personal style would be to simply, aided with Mizu Bunshins, get in close to the opposition and slash him or her to pieces. Having killed in the Rebellion, Naruto wasn't averse to get in close and personal.

Naruto slowly turned away from the view over the land, facing his small wooden hut. He raised one hand to it as if to say goodbye, before turning away again and begin his descent from the hill.


	2. Discovery

Discovery

Naruto turned away from his hut and made his way down the hill. Stopping at a boulder, he picked up his straw coat resting on it and heaved the backpack onto one shoulder. Throwing the straw coat over himself, then he took a deep breath and placed the straw, round, pointed hat on his head, then continued on his way.

Blue eyes flicked back and forth, taking in every detail from since he had come down the hill. He wasn't moving at a particularly brisk pace considering he had no actual destination. Indeed, he was moving rather slowly. However, ever since coming down from the hill, which he dubbed 'Sanctuary' he had been pestered by bugs, unruly vines and a sightful of a trees in every direction. He doubted that he would be able to go back even if he wanted to, basically meaning, he was lost.

Sighing theatrically, he ran a hand though his unruly hair. Considering his lack of human contact, Naruto had simply let his hair grow, until now that is. Now he had tied his hair into a ponytail, loosely having it simply hang behind him. He knew he should cut it, but had developed a liking for the length of his hair so he postponed it. The only reason why he tied his hair back was so it stayed out of his way if he was ever caught unawares and thrust into combat, also, it might give a better first impression should he run into someone.

He blinked as he saw the stone clearing in front of him. Actually, that would be incorrect as it was a road, with the forest cleared on each side and gravel making up its path. Shaking his head, he stepped onto the road, smiling in amusement at the sounds his sandals on the gravel made. Back in the Mist, he rarely got to dwell on the childish enjoyments; he had twelve years of childish antiques to make up for. Suddenly, he snapped as stiff as a board, head straight and his eyes widely darting back and forth.

Voices, he heard voices. People.

Slowly, he rotated his head until he noticed four figures in the distance. From what he could make out, it was an adult and three children, bordering on teens. As they came closer, he realised that they were Shinobi; the adult wore his Forehead Protector over his left eye, the lower half of his face masked and with a large mop of silver hair. He wore a variation of the chuunin vest from another Hidden Village. The children each wore there Fore-head Protectors in plain sight, except for the girl who had shocking pink hair. The one in the lead wore a long coat, a furry hood covering his head, the one behind him was another boy, and this one had black hair with a blue shirt and white pants. The girl was trailing after him like a love-sick puppy.

_Jounin and his Genin Team…_

He sighed and immediately his hands went behind his head, removing his Mist-nin insignia and pocketed it, then tilted his sword within the coat so that it would be hidden from view. His face morphed into a bright smile as he waved at them. The only reaction he got from this distance was the one in the lead waving his hand wildly, until they got within speaking distance.

The Jounin raised a hand in greeting, "Yo."

"Ohayo, Shinobi-sama."

The Jounin nodded at him and jerked his chin down the road, "You heading to Konoha, right?"

Naruto blinked and then mentally shrugged, "Yes, Shinobi-sama."

"Ahh, right then, least we could do is show Leaf hospitality and escort you there. My name is Hatake Kakashi by the way. And this is my genin team, Uchiha Sasuke," The black-haired one nodded, "Inuzuka Kiba," The hooded one grinned at him and a small dog climbed out the parker to bark at Naruto, "And, Haruno Sakura." The girl smiled at him waving a hand.

Naruto nodded with a smile plastered across his face, "Name's U-Mamori Yasha." He stuck his hand out to the Jounin who slowly reached out and shook it before letting go.

"Yes, well time to continue on, don't you think?" Hatake narrowed his eyes imperceptively.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

They began their long journey to the Leaf, with Naruto silently congratulating himself on his quick recovery on making up a new name, obvious the Jounin would know about criminal Shinobi, his new growth would make sure he wasn't recognised but his name still did come up on the Bingo book as a C-Class Nukenin. He doubted he could defeat any experienced Jounin on his own so it would be wise to play fake.

'Yasha' twitched as the hyper-active hooded ninja began yelling about his superiority over the Uchiha again for the sixth time in the four hour trip.

"You didn't do a thing against Haku, Sasuke-teme! I did all the work and I kicked a B-Class Missing-Nin's arse!"

"Tch." The Uchiha turned away and ignored him.

"Shut up, baka! I was watching and you just kept spinning into the mirrors while Sasuke-kun at least hit him with a Katon!"And there was the girl, butting in to protect her boyfriend.

"His Katon didn't do much did it? At least managed a direct hit!" A retort from the loud one.

"No, you didn't, you hit the mirror and when Haku was sifting out again, you fell on him!" The girl pointing out facts.

"Bah!" The loud one silenced after a duel of wits.

Through all of this, Naruto did his best to tune it out before turning to the Jounin, "Are they always like this?"

"Quite," The Jounin said, his nose still buried in that strange yellow book of his, "But, I suppose that they deserve it after all, we did just complete an A-Class Mission and they're Genins."

"Really? What happened?"

"We went against an A-Class Missing-Nin and a B-Class Rogue Hunter-Nin."

"How'd they do against them?"

"Well, they got some combat experience now and Sasuke-kun awakened his Sharingan, the Uchiha Bloodline. I may have to take them sparring and take his ego down a few notches. Overconfidence can you get killed as a Shinobi."

Naruto nodded with a smile and turned back to face the path, shifting his bag slightly and tilted his head back towards the Copy-Nin.

"What's the Sharingan?"

Kakashi looked up from his book before studying Naruto's curious face, "You really have been secluded for a while haven't you? Even most civilians from other Hidden Villages know what the Sharingan is."

"Yeah, well…"

Kakashi shook his head, "No matter, Sasuke, explain it to him."

Sasuke turned his head towards him from behind, "The Sharingan is an Uchiha Bloodline Limit. Its most common use is its ability to copy any technique it sees whether it be Genjutsu, Ninjutsu or Taijutsu, and it even at its weakest, can see through most Genjutsu's that are not Bloodline based."

"Ahh, arigato, Sasuke-kun for enlightening me."

The Uchiha snorted and then continued to walk in silence.

_If what he said was complete truth, I had better be careful in my use of Shinobi Techniques, I cannot allow Zabuza-sama's teachings to fall into the hands of the Leaf and it would also increase my survival chance should they not know a counter._

He smiled at them, "So the Leaf has to be very strong to have such a potent Bloodline Limit within their village, yes?"

Hatake shook his head, "No. Not since the Uchiha massacre."

Sasuke stiffened and the atmosphere changed.

In an attempt to break the lengthening silence, Haruno, the girl, sidled up to him with a bright smile. "Mamori-san, what are you doing going to Konoha?"Curiosity brimming in her eyes.

Naruto turned to face her, "Don't really know, father just died in our Hermit's Hut and left me all alone. I miss him but I hardly think living the rest of my life all alone would suit me or him."

The girl frowned at his story, "How sad. So you'd be going to Konoha to get a job right?"

"Yeah, why?"

Hatake butted in, "Well, just giving you a heads up, any person that is not a trader and without proper authorisation must see the Hokage before they are allowed to live or have any sort of business within the Village's walls."

Naruto blinked and looked at him, "So now you're making sure I'm going there too?"

Hatake single eye transformed into half crescent, "Yes."

Naruto sighed.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Throughout the rest of the trip, Naruto just tuned out the Inuzuka's continuous bragging on how he beat someone named Haku and how the Uchiha didn't do anything.

On arrival at the Hidden Village, the Jounin had showed their identification and informed the Guards of their willingness to escort the stranger known as Mamori.

"Right, Hatake-san, well you can enter."

Flanked by the Uchiha and the girl, Naruto sighed again as he was practically jostled into moving in a straight line directly at the Tower in the centre. Going through the doors and finding their way to the Hokage's room proved to be a choir considering all the stairs. Finally he stood before an old man, wearing a ridiculously bright red hat and smoking.

The Jounin stepped forward, "Hatake Kakashi, Jounin, reporting successful mission."

"Ahh, good Kakashi, I hope there were no complications?"

"Yes there was Hokage-sama. The C-Class Mission should have been classified as an A-Class as we encountered an A-Class Nukenin."

The Hokage watched the Jounin steadily before nodding, "An A-Class will be placed in your reports. Now who is this child?"

"This is Mamori Yasha, who was now asking permission to live or begin business within Konoha after to father's Hermit death."

"I can introduce myself." Grumbled 'Yasha'.

"Indeed." Smiled the Old Man, he turned to face the known Shinobi before him.

"Dismissed."

As the Shinobi filed out, he turned his attention back on Naruto.

"So, tell me 'Yasha', why do you wish to settle in my Konoha?"

Naruto began fidget under the unnerving stare. "Well, it was the closest settlement to my home…"

"Ahh, the lazy approach." The Hokage leaned back in his chair,"So, tell me a little about yourself."

"Well, my name is Mamori Yasha, I'm twelve years old, I can sew and cook."

"Well, Yasha-san, where do you think you would fit in in Konoha?"

"Uhh, maybe as a Cook's Assistant?"

"Good, you came at least a little prepared. I know of a small restaurant that is starting to get overcrowded with customers and lacking in Chefs. I will have one of my men lead you to it."

Naruto slumped in his seat in relief, "Thank you, Hokage-sama."

Sarutobi nodded and called in the Guard at the door, having him lead the boy away. As Sarutobi sat alone behind his desk, he steepled his fingers and frowned for several minutes. Suddenly he called in the new Guard that had been stationed there in the original's absence.

"Yes, Hokage-sama?"

"Anbu-san, I want you to watch a civilian known as Mamori Yasha, report here every day afterwards."

Nodding stiffly, the Anbu spun around and closed the door behind him.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"This is it Mamori-san, hope you like it."

The restaurant proved to actually be quite a small store, hygienically it was tolerable, but safety-wise, it may as well have been a fireball. Considering its wooden structure and the chef's continuous use of the wok, this was not the safest of places.

Naruto sighed and walked in, waving a hand at the Shinobi who faded from sight. The girl beside the chef blinked and looked at him as he entered and then smiled. "Hello, my name is Ayame and I will be taking your order today."

Naruto shook his head, "Sorry, I'm a recent transfer into Konoha and as I don't have many skills besides cooking and sewing I got given a job here as the boss of this establishment was asking for assistance."

The Chef looked up at him, "Ahh, 'bout time we got some help, we get swamped n the afternoon. Damn annoying too. I'm the boss, and my name's Ichiraku." He wiped his hand on his apron and reached out for a handshake. Smiling, Naruto shook and winced a little at the greasy feeling in his hand.

"You got a place to stay, kid?"

"No, but I- "

"See, Ayame? I told you having a spare room were a good idea! Don't you turn and huff on me young lady because you were wrong!" The old man was grinning like he won the jackpot before turning back to Naruto and schooling his face down to a smile.

"Well, tell me your name and take your stuff out back, you'll know which your room is when you see it. Namely it's the big empty one."

"Yes sir, my name's Mamori Yasha." Naruto made to enter the back.

"Don't call me sir, boy!" Shouted the chef after him.

Naruto stopped at the small room; all that inhabited it was a bed and a desk. It was a traditional room with the white sliding panels for doors and with plain white wallpaper. The wooden boarded floor had gathered some dust and there was dust on the double-window at the side as well. Even small, the room was almost as big as his hut. He tossed down his bag and closed the window's curtains. He lifted the mattress on the bed and removed his sword, placing it underneath. Taking his pouch filled with all Shinobi necessities he placed it underneath as well. His hands flashing through several seals, he performed a minor Genjutsu, making the weapons camouflage into the wooden mattress support. Tossing his bag into the corner, he opened the curtains and then opened the window a little bit, before exiting, closing the door and making his way back to the kitchen/serving room.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

For several weeks afterwards, he Ayame and the Old man would serve customers who came and went, and as Ichiraku said, the influx of customers at lunch was enormous, even with his suppressed Shinobi skills, Naruto was hard-pressed. Every night however, the stealthy Nukenin would shut his windows to his room and close the curtains and then use a minor sound muffling Jutsu as to not be detected. He would practise his less flashy and loud jutsu's within and keep himself in shape by performing several blade katas.

A grinning Kiba, flanked by his indifferent team-mate Sasuke and his dream girlfriend Sakura entered Ichiraku's.

"Hear that Sakura-chan? We got nominated for the Chuunin exams and we're Rookies, this just shows how good we are!"

Sasuke said nothing but Sakura latched onto Sasuke's arm and grinned, "You mean how good Sasuke-kun is!"

"Pfah! I did –"

"Why, hello Yasha-san! I didn't know you worked here!"

Naruto looked up at her, blinking owlishly as his hands continued to wipe clean the already clean dish.

"Oh, hello Sakura-san, Sasuke-san, Kiba-san."

She was grinning in delight, "We got nominated for the Chuunin Exam!"

Naruto blinked before smiling warmly, "Congratulations Sakura-san!"

Ichiraku stuck his head out from around the corner, "Give our Shinobi masters their Ramen! On the House!"

Kiba grinned and puffed out his chest, "One mega sized Pork Ramen!"

As usual, Sasuke snorted.

Naruto's gaze followed the Uchiha as he sat down by himself in the corner, away from his team-mates. He dried off the dish and tossed it into the dry pile.

_Strange, one would think you'd be closer as a team, if only to be more effective._

He shook his head as he turned to face the girl and dog-user, "So, you know anything about who you're up against?"

The girl frowned, "Well, Kakashi-sensei said their will be many Genins from all the other Elemental Countries that are going to come and test themselves for Chuunin here in Konoha."

"Wow, so you'd be up against the best wouldn't ya?" He asked as he tossed another onto the dry pile.

"Yes, though I think we have more then enough experience after that newly classified A-Class Mission. Kakashi-sensei had to be called back to the Hokage to talk about the C-Class turned A-Class Mission."

"Well, I'm sure you and your team will do very well." Naruto said with a smile.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sasuke stared out the river from the bridge. His hands flashed, _Hebi, Tora, Usagi, Ouso-buta, Uma, Tora,_ "Katon: Goukakyuu no Jutsu!" a fireball erupted from his mouth flaring above the water for several seconds before dissipitating.

He straightened up. "Come out. I know you're there."

Naruto stepped out from behind the tree. A slight smile was evident on his face as he raised his hands to show he meant no harm.

Sasuke narrowed his eyes at him, "What are you doing here Yasha-san?"

Naruto kept his face amiable as he spoke, "Simply watching these amazing Shinobi techniques. Is there any chance that I could learn something like that?"

Sasuke glared, "No, _civilian_, you may not learn Shinobi techniques."

At this Naruto frowned, "Come now, do we have to be that hostile? I was just curious about the techniques you Shinobi always use in combat."

"They are Shinobi techniques because they are secret, if every civilian could learn them then we wouldn't have civilians and a Hidden Village full of Nins."

Naruto frown deepened before he brightened, "Could you at least show me those hand things that you do?"

The last Uchiha raised a delicate eyebrow, "Handseals, civilian, they're called handseals."

Naruto nodded, "So could you at least show me them?"

Sasuke's irritation was obvious at the prolonged interruption of his training, "Fine, if it will get you to go away. The signs are _Hebi, Tora, Usagi, Ouso-buta, Uma, Tora_, you know all from the zodiac?" As he said them his hands rapidly flashed through each seal to show Naruto, as Naruto was actually a Shinobi, he just remembered the seal names instead of the hands' actions.

The avenger's glare darkened, "Now will you leave me alone?"

Naruto backed away, "Yes, Shinobi-sama, as you wish."

_And while I leave, I have a new Leaf technique in my arsenal._

Turning around and letting his hands fall to his sides he slowly walked away from the irate Shinobi behind him and headed to the training grounds. Today was his day off from work so he had quite a long day left to examine Leaf Shinobi techniques closely.

As he walked, he was entirely unaware of two pairs of eyes on him, one of that of a certain silver-haired Jounin and the other from the beady eyes of an animal-mask.

Arriving at the training grounds, his face stretched into another smile as he watched two Leaf Genins sparring. From what he could see from this distance it was an especially eccentric Ninja in green spandex squaring off against a rather relaxed Ninja in white. The one in green repeatedly used _Tekkun_ techniques that were either diverted or countered with ease without the other even moving very much from the spot.

Naruto narrowed his blue eyes and realised that the one in white was part of the Hyuuga Clan, the leading Shinobi Clan of the Leaf ever since the destruction of the Uchiha Clan. He'd have to look them up later as he needed to learn about their techniques to counter them if he ever needed to match one in a real combat situation.

His eyes widened when the Hyuuga finally loosed off a volley of blows that had the one in green collapsing on the ground with ease.

_The spandex Shinobi was obviously a Taijutsu specialist if not an expert, to be taken down so easily without a sweat… The Hyuuga is obviously a potent Bloodline._

Naruto stared at the next actions as their Sensei who had been pacing on the sidelines suddenly leapt in shouting loudly and scooped up his fallen student in a bear-hug. One figure in green spandex was enough – but two? On the same team? And with the eccentricities that could land a civilian in a 'Home'? This Team was just asking to get themselves thumped. Badly. By different factions. Most from their own.

Shaking his head, he leaned against the rail which separated the Civilian-Off Limits Territory to the Civilian normal territory.

He blinked as he noticed another settling to lean against the rail to watch as well.

"They really are a pair of insane Shinobi aren't they?"

Blinking in surprise at being addressed by a complete stranger, he nodded, "Hai."

The girl standing next to him had brown eyes and hair, tied into a pair of buns most likely to just hold her hair in place. Her Konoha Fore-head Protector was quite obvious and she didn't seem the slightest bit at uneased when talking about two male, spandexed Shinobi hugging each other in a sparring match.

"You can't really blame them, well maybe Gai-sensei as he was the one who corrupted Lee. But chances are he started this whole 'Youth Power' thing from something." She sighed as she watched the previously defeated Shinobi straighten up and face the Hyuuga once more before turning to her neighbour.

"I'm Tenten, nice to meet you." She stuck out a hand.

Nodding at her, he clasped it in his, "Mamori Yasha."

She looked him up and down, "Aren't you supposed to be the new villager escorted in by Team Seven?"

"Yeah…So?"

"Yeah, you work at Ichariku's don't you?"

"Once again, yes. So?"

She grinned, "That place has some of the best food in Konoha. Such a shame they only server Ramen. Dad used to go there every time he and mom got into an argument, he calls the place 'The Perfect Comfort Food Provider'."

Naruto chuckled at that, "I suppose any food that's warm and fat can be considered 'Comfort Food.'"

"Well, dad still says –"

"Tenten-chan! Who is the fountain of youth you speak to?"

Naruto and Tenten simultaneously winced as the Jounin Instructor yelled at them.

"No-one Gai-sensei! _I suspect now is a good time to run from the horrible fate of listening to Gai for the next twenty minutes about Youth!_" Naruto quietly snickered and nodded.

"Gotcha." He jogged off with a wave.

Considering that the only people training today was Team 8 and Team 5 of which only Team 8 seemed to be of any notice, Naruto decided a bit of research was needed, both on his current status as a Missing-Nin and the Bloodlines of the Hidden Village he was temporarily staying in.

He sighed. He hated reading.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Naruto stared up at his ceiling as he lay in bed, feeling considerably more at ease then when he had been on guard throughout his time in Konohagakure. Apparently, he had been listed off as deceased due to the lack of sightings of himself, also the description was outdated so it would be pretty hard to connect Mamori Yasha to Uzumaki Naruto. That found, he had gone on to find out what he could about the various Bloodlines of Konoha. In Konoha, there was actually quite a few Bloodlines inherited by blood but very few true Advanced Bloodlines and those would by the Hyuuga Byakugan, the Uchiha Sharingan, the rest of the Bloodline clans like the Inuzuka were done by special training which was required.

The Byakugan was a Doujutsu that relied on the strength of each individual Hyuuga member. All Byakugan members with their Doujutsu active would be able to see a 360 arc, having next to no chance of catching them by surprise. It also allowed one to be able to see through objects and hidden life forms. The more experienced members of the Clan would be able to see the tenkutsu lines of a Shinobi which allows them to use the Jyuuken to shut down the opposing Shinobi's chakra, rendering him or her useless. A fearsome Bloodlline to be sure.

He had already filed away the information given to him by the Genin team he had travelled with so did not bother to look it up. Though the two Doujutsu Clans are power and were powerful in the Uchiha's case, the Aburame were definitely the most interesting as they allowed the use of bugs to do almost anything. Flexible and reliable weapons that could go from chakra sapping to exploding. It seems Konoha was very well off in its Shinobi. Though he would have to look into that incident a dozen years ago when Konoha's forces were cut down to barely a quarter of their forces.

Naruto shook his head as he frowned and pulled the covers up. He'd find out about this 'Kyuubi' another time.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Naruto slowly walked down the street, occasionally acknowledging the waves from the different shop keepers, his blue eyes watching the clouds above him.

Today, was a strange day, as he had been repeatedly stalked by the Maito Gai Jounin who had to have been dropped on his head when he grew up. His little interaction between himself and Tenten had Maito Gai drop all training and stalking him all over the place yelling about the 'Eternal Love of youthful fire between the passions of male and female!'. It took Naruto four hours since lunch to lose him and for four hours he had to keep himself from running off to his room and pulling out his swored and then cutting the Jounin into several small pieces.

Currently, he was trying to find his way back to the Ramen shop as it was his turn to wash the dishes today. Sighing, he felt rather melancholy considering the amount of times he had currently sighed ever since arriving in Konoha. He knew that Konoha wasn't the place for him to settle down, but considering nobody would place two and two with Uzumaki Naruto and Mamori Yasha, he felt fairly safe to observe and learn what he can about Fire Country's forces and why they are the current most powerful Nation.

The cracking of sandals on gravel made him stop. He turned his head and looked behind him, noting the paper imitation of a brick wall being held up by a child against a concrete wall. He blinked.

_Idiot._

Turning around he continued to walk, stuffing his hands into his pockets.

Crunch, crunch, crunch.

He turned and looked at the hidden child now holding several bamboo sticks in front of him as he hid against a bamboo fence. Naruto rolled his eyes. Before taking another step forward.

Crunch.

He turned around again and noticed the child considerably closer then he was a moment ago. Sighing again he turned around completely, walked towards the 'hidden' person and plucked the bamboo sticks out of his hands and looked down at him.

"Exactly why are you following me, kid?"

The boy as he now noted, grinned toothily up at him, "Aha! A civilian amongst many has noticed the spying Shinobi! You are no civilian! You are a master Shinobi!"

Naruto's eyebrow ticqued at that, "Exactly how stupid do you consider civilians?"

"Not stupid at all, but they would never catch any Shinobi! As you have found me, you spying Shinobi, you are my Rival!"

Naruto scratched his head before waving him off, "Whatever, kid. GO home or else you'll get hurt."

"Ha! As if I, Sarutobi Konohamaru, will ever be hurt by anyone! I the Master Shinobi and Legacy of the Third Hokage and future Hokage will ever be put down by the pains of battle!"

Naruto's eyebrow twitched, with that, he picked up a small pebble.

"Ha, Rival! As if any weapon of yours could ever-!"

Naruto flicked the pebble in his mouth.

"Now stay quiet."

Naruto spun on his heel again and began his walk home shaking his head at the logic of children and also their naivety.

In the background, "I will get you back, Rival!" filtered into the Ramen shop.

Naruto slapped a hand to his face and pretended to be deaf.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

It had been about two weeks since he had come to Konoha, not surprisingly, nothing much had happened. While watching the Leaf Shinobi training, he had only managed to steal a total of two Jutsu; those being _Katon: Goukakyuu no Jutsu_ and _Kage Shuriken no Jutsu_. Naruto chuckled at the 'Shuriken' in its name, as it could be applied to any weapon. 'Weapon' would fit it much better. This train of thought led him around on why people always feel the need to name techniques. Afterall, shouldn't it be wiser to _not_ let your opponents find out? After all, as long as you have the right seals and chakra control you could call your jutsu _Super Mommy no Jutsu_ and it would still have its original effects. He shrugged to himself as he wiped off another dish at the Ramen stand and decided he didn't care, he supposed yelling your techniques at the top of your lungs was normal Shinobi behaviour.

For now however, to get back on track, he needed to find a suitable time and place to practise the jutsu's as he can neither leave Konoha or use the Traning Grounds. The chakra surge needed for them would be detected by the upper level Jounins who would investigate the area outside Konoha and he couldn't use the Training Grounds due to other Shinobi having a large chance to find him out in broad daylight. Same issue with problem one if he tried it at night. He glared at the dish as he wiped off another one and tossed it at the pile next to him, turning back before it even landed on top of the pile. Eyes blinked at that negligent act.

Today, it seemed, was not the best of days for him either. Being delayed by the psychotic delusional child, he had been late ten minutes which earned him a scolding and resulted in him doing the dish washing the entire day. He wondered if there was a Shinobi technique which instantly cleaned things. Shaking his head, he repeated the action of tossing the dish onto the pile. The eyes narrowed at this.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

_Author's Note: Well, nothing impressive as it is my first proper story which I feel like putting effort into. Here's a few notes on the story;_

_First of all, Naruto is now about Mid-Chuunin Level and would get the floor wiped with him against Kakashi, Asuma or Kurenai._

_Second, this story will follow the original plotline to a certain point before I begin to develop my own._

_And thirdly, chances are, Naruto won't be fighting until Chapter 3, this is Chapter 1 mind you so if you like fast-paced stories like 'Beasts' don't bother reading this._

_And now, since people have been asking for one, your Jutsu List._

**Mizu Bunshin: Water Clone, similar to the Kage Bunshin but made of solid water and are about 10 strength of the original.**

**Suiton: Suiryuudan no Jutsu: Creates a water dragon which tears/rips into opponents. Very powerful with a water source but considerably weaker when Shinobi have to draw moisture form the air to perform it.**

**Suiton: Kirigakure no Jutsu: Creates a dense mist around the performing Shinobi's immediate area. Its so dense that you can only see for a few feet. If the performer has a way to sense his opponents within it, he can go for sneak attacks.**

**Katon: Goukakyuu no Jutsu: It releases a stream of fire that forms into a fireball and the Shinobi using it must both stay still and have one hand at his lips to control it. When it backfires however, it backfires spectacularly.**

**Kage Shuriken no Jutsu: Like the Kage Bunshin which you should all know, it replicates an object, in this case, a weapon. Unlike its name, it can be applied to any thrown weapon, even a _Zanbatou_.**

_Anyway, hope you like my story so far and review! Constructive criticism appreciated. Emphasis on the word 'Constructive'._

_Yes; I am an attention-seeking wannabe who gets happy by reading reviews._


	3. Evaluation

Evaluation

Naruto hissed as he waved his left hand about, clutching at it with his other. Even with his Shinobi reflexes, he had failed to catch the splatter of cooking oil, resulting in his current condition of scalding skin. Grumbling several less then decent choice words, he wrapped it up with a red cloth all the while swearing at the extra sting when the skin and cloth touched each other. He tightened the cloth to make sure it would not come loose and glanced at the clock, the small hand was pointing at the 2 and the large hand was pointing at the three. Fifteen minutes ago, he could have gone on his break. He shrugged as he pulled his apron off, tossing it over and hanging it on a wire suspended near the ceiling. Stepping out he waved to the Teuchi who was his boss, "Right, Old Man, I'm off to my break. I'll be back at one."

He reacted by waving a spoon at him dismissively, "Just make sure you are before the 2 o'clock rush."

Striding out of the restaurant, he pilfered a tea cup from one of the trays. It had been recently made as it was still hot. Staying in the shade of the buildings around Konoha, he began to explore its surroundings. He blinked when he noticed a pale-blond headed girl at a flower shop. Bored as he was, he remembered her yelling at the pink-haired genin, Sakura. Anyone who bothered to stand up to that loud motor-mouth had to be worth some time. Opening the glass door of the shop with his free hand, he stepped in, a slight smile on his face.

Ino grumbled as she placed in the sixth flower of the batch, her eyes occasionally suspiciously glaring at the male teen before her. She immediately noticed his fidgeting and the way he kept brushing at his brown hair as she watched him.

_This one is so going to get shot down when he asked the poor girl on a date._

Sighing as she watched him leave through the front door, the small bells ringing as he signalled his exit, she blinked in surprise when another boy, no older then her walked in. He had a smile on his face as he raised a single hand from his pocket, "Ohayo!"

Ino smiled, showing her teeth as she watched him approach, "Yasha-kun! It's been a while, how are you?"

He pulled his hands form his pockets, allowing them to fold behind his head, cushioning it even while standing up, "Better then most, if you don't count the overuse of oil the Old Man uses. Splattered all over my arm this morning it did."

She looked sympathetically at the partially hidden bandaged arm behind his head.

"Poor Yasha, forced into slavery as soon as he steps onto the soil of Konohagakure, maybe one day he'll get lucky at be unchained from his shackles from the Sandaime."

"Yes, I agree, this is slavery, after all, what kind of person should be forced to get his arm splattered on by oil? It's not right, it could be considered torture! If this is how the Hokage of the past have acted, no wonder Konoha's a Hidden Village Major Power!"

She laughed lightly, "Stop whining, you're actually lucky to have been admitted at all, considering you basically have no history, for all Hokage-sama knows, you're an enemy Nin sent to spy on us."

Inwardly, Naruto winced at that before chuckling lightly. He had originally met Ino when she, accompanied by her Shinobi Team had arrived at Ichiraku's. Most of the time there, she was just holding a napkin up against a curtain towards the one named Chouji who was slurping every bowl of Ramen he ordered and splattered the soup everywhere in all 360 angles. If Naruto hadn't seen him calmly sit down, he would have thought that it was a giant top-spin that had noodles dropped on it while it was spinning. Of course, his rather fearful questions toward Ino about the over-weight boy's behaviour met with their first similarity on fear of watching other people eat like animals. So far, he found the blonde girl to be the most welcoming person here, not counting Old Man Ichiraku and Ayame. Later, after being introduced, he noticed her shrieking at the poor pink-head about something, though he couldn't catch her words, he assumed they were very unladylike. After catching up with her afterwards, they had something else in common, there dislike for Haruno Sakura. How the pink love-struck bimbo of a Shinobi ever became Genin was a mystery to the hidden Nukenin.

He leaned on the counter as she turned around to wrap up more flowers, "Heh, thought you were Shinobi, and shouldn't you be off training deep in the forest somewhere?"

She sniffed as she flipped her blonde lock out of her eyes, "And get me dirty? I think not!"

Naruto sorely hoped that her vanity was a joke between them, shaking his head; he picked up the measuring ruler on the desk and used it to cover the distance between her back and himself, poking her in the shoulder-blade. She looked over her shoulder, "What?"'

"You do realise the Chuunin Exams are coming up?"

She blinked before narrowing her eyes at him, "How do you know that?"

"Kiba-san was boasting about how his sensei nominated Team 7 for it."

"Ahh." For once she looked disconcerted.

Understanding her facial expression, Naruto nodded, "It would do well for you to go and train, from what I heard, the Chuunin Exams allowed killing, meaning that I don't want you to end up a corpse somewhere and for myself to lose a friend."

Her worried expression instantly changed to a teasing smile, "So I'm your friend eh, Yasha-_kun_?"

The sultry tone made Naruto blink and his mind go blank, as he hadn't had much experience with dealing with light teasing or females in particular, he didn't know how to respond to the sultry tone.

She laughed at his expression before waving him off, "Don't worry, Yasha, I'll be fine in the Chuunin Exam, I'll probably drag Shikamaru and Chouji to training and together, we'll kick all their arses!"

Naruto chuckled nervously at her enthusiasm before backing away, "Well, it was nice talking to you, Ino, I'll head back now and hope to see you at the Exams, with luck, good or bad, you'll end up being nominated."

The door's bells rang as he shut the door behind him.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Naruto twirled the dango stick between the fingers of his left hand as he sucked the sauce of the fingers on his right. He'd left Ino at the flower shop a while ago now and had to get back to the Ramen Shop soon. He tossed the dango stick in a public bin and wiped his hands on his pants as he headed back towards Ichiraku's he froze in mid-step as he felt a wave of killing intent not far off. Out of curiosity he decided to investigate, the single kunai hidden in one of the pockets of his pants flipped into his hand as he turned the corner.

Slowly he stepped forward, keeping the blade hidden by his arm from all observers from in front of him before he noticed a boy in a bodysuit with ridiculous cat ears and face-paint holding up the eccentric grandson of the Sandaime in one hand.

"… Hardly Temari, you noticed how the brat bumped into me. I say we teach the boy about respect to his superiors."

"We don't have time for this Kankuro, best that we just go straight to our hotel and stay there. The point is _not_ draw attention to ourselves."

"Bah, you're no fun, what – Who are you?"

Naruto watched them in a relaxed stance as he stepped out from the corner. To the normal eye, it would seem like he had no intention towards violence, however, to the trained eye, the way he stood would quickly allow him to access the correct stance for a Taijutsu Style. Three pairs of eyes narrowed at him.

Naruto watched them impassively, "I am a civilian of Konoha."

Kankuro snorted and lifted Konohamaru higher, shaking him a bit, he sneered, "And I assume you want me to put the brat down?"

Naruto nodded, and pointed at the Hokage Monument easily seen from here, "You see that?"

Kankuro glanced at it before looking back at him, "Yeah, so?"

"See the third one from the left?"

"Yeah, and once again, I say, so?"

Naruto moved his finger and pointed to the Shinobi Academy Student, "He is his grandson. The Sandaime is also still alive."

Kankuro blinked and then gaped a bit before shaking himself out of it, "So what? You're a _civilian_, you can't do anything!"

"I can't but they can." Right on cue, a stone hurtled out and slapped against Kankuro's wrist, painfully forcing him to drop the struggling boy who hurried to hide behind Naruto. Naruto watched with narrowed eyes and discreetly hid his kunai again.

"You are guests of Konoha, Sand Shinobi, act like it." A voice called out.

"Sasuke-kun, you are so cool!"

_Ahh, so my rescuers are the angst machine, the pinky bimbo and if they're here, the mutt shouldn't be too far away._

Stepping back, Naruto slowly backed away as the Sand Shinobi's attention was upon the Uchiha on the branch of a nearby tree. Guiding Konohamaru away, he turned around at a safe distance, keeping a hand on the child's back to move him away from a possible fighting ground. Finally stopping when the two were in the middle of a busy street, he knelt down he ruffled the boy's hair, "Next time, try not to get in too much trouble."

The Sarutobi nodded, slowly getting his bravado back and when he did, Naruto was no longer with him.

Naruto was power-walking around Konoha's streets, his glare fixated firmly on the dirt path in front of him. His sandals scuffing against the floor, he moodily kicked one rock around.

_Stupid, stupid, **stupid**! I should have a sensed Team 7 in the area before jumping in like a knight in shining armour. Granted Konohamaru's a guy so it'd be more like ANBU jumping in but that's beside the point. For all I know that the Sharingan user noticed my Shinobi abilities. This is not good at all._

Scuffing his sandal again, he blinked when he realised he was in the middle of the path but there was no one else there. They all seemed to be at the sides, doing their daily activities there instead. He looked up and noted the carriage coming from the Hokage Tower. Curiously he headed over to the nearest merchant and garnered his attention, "Hey, why is everyone leaving such a wide path for the carriage? Nobody seems the slightest bit concerned."

The merchant chuckled and spoke, "The carriage is for caged Missing-Nin Konoha's Shinobi which have caught. Those are for taking them back to their Village of origin to get the bounties the criminals have. The two in that carriage is known as the Demon Brothers, freshly caught by Hatake Kakashi, our resident genius. The Mist really should have better control of their Shinobi. Demon Brothers indeed, heh."

Naruto narrowed his eyes and then thanked the shopkeeper. Heading back to the Ramen Shop he sprinted in, skidding to a stop next to his boss, "Gah! Yasha, you're late! Hurry up and –!"

"I'm sorry, Ichiraku-san, there's something I must do and it's very important, I'll take double shifts for the entire week after the Chuunin Exams!"

Ichiraku blinked and nodded dumbly as Uzumaki disappeared from view.

Naruto hissed as he revealed his meagre hiding place of his Nin equipment. Dressing in his Shinobi clothing, stretched a bit, noting his better fashion sense after buying suitable replacement clothing. He was dressed in a dark blue which covered most of his body. His pants were rolled up until they ended just below the knees, his shins wrapped in the typical white Ninja garb. Black Shinobi sandals covered his feet and his plain blue shirt was also rolled up at the sleeves. He wore a pair of fingerless gloves on each hand and his right arm was swathed in bandages ending at his wrist which was then continued on by the Nin gloves. He had a black sash as his belt and a black scarf wrapped around his neck, obscuring the bottom half of his face. His kunai pouch was placed typically at his right thigh and his equipment pouch was tied at the small of his back, covered by the diagonally hanging sword. He picked up his slashed forehead-protector, looked at it for a moment then stuffed it in his pocket before leaping out. Nodding in satisfaction as he regarded himself, he opened the window and leapt out.

_The Demon Brothers. Gozu and Meizu. Bah, considering I did once fight alongside them, I'm at least obligated to help them. I don't think the Mizukage would be too understanding as they did support Zabuza-sama in his coup d'etat to assassinate the man._

From behind a mask, a single eyebrow was raised.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Kamizuka Izumo groaned as he leaned back against the carriage. Once again, another of his escort missions were annoyingly slowed last time to Wind Country due to a sand storm and this time due to mist. It seems wherever he went, the elements were always against him.

"Heh. Izumo, thinking about your bad luck again?"

Izumo looked down at his fellow Chuunin walking alongside the carriage as Izumo held the reins, "Kotetsu, you may have the luck of a cat with nine lives, I do not."

Hagane Kotetsu snorted and rubbed his nose, twirling a kunai around his right index finger, "Bah, this isn't that bad, imagine the poor ANBU bastards who have to go after A to S Class criminals and missions. This is far easier."

"True, but I wish I'd just get a nice and simple B-Class mission for once. I was blinded for two days at the Hidden Sand when that sandstorm struck and now we've got this ridiculously thick mist around us."

Kotetsu chuckled, his stance as he walked changed ever so slightly, unnoticeable unless you were a perceptive and experienced Shinobi.

Within the carriage, Meizu's eyes widened and turned his head as he looked out the bars, his shackles clinking as he shifted.

_This is no ordinary mist. Who would take the time to hinder Leaf Nins escorting a pair of Missing-Nin?_

He glanced at Gozu who was already watching and nodded. Slowly, they shifted so that they faced the carriage's doors.

Izumo snapped his neck back just in time as a kunai hurtled past and rolling backwards on top of the carriage he held his own kunai in a reverse grip.

Kotetsu leapt behind him, spinning around so they were back to back, "Izumo, what do we do now?"

"Don't know, it's obvious that this mist is his creation so it's safe to assume that he's a Mist Nin. Only way I can think of to clear it is use some of the Sand's wind techniques of which I do not have."

"Well, seems like we're in a predicament."

"Yep."

Another kunai flashed out, this one being deflected by one of the Chuunin, resulting in thudding into the carriage's wooden roof, an explosive note attached.

"Shit!" Both Chuunin leaping away in opposite directions.

Kotetsu, landed in a crouch, skidding to a halt as he waited for the inevitable explosion. He waited, and waited and waited. His eyes widened.

_It's a damn fake!_

Izumo had noted that at about the same time and had reacted the same way, heading back towards the carriage.

Naruto smiled as he watched the hapless Chuunin going back; already his _Mizu Bunshin_ had freed the Demon Brothers of who were now coming towards his hidden position. His didn't bat an eyebrow when the twin Shinobi landed next to him; one was watching the confused Leaf Shinobi while the other held a kunai pilfered as he escaped.

Finally turning to face them, he made a beckoning motion and retreated away into the forest.

Meizu looked at Gozu who nodded and followed.

Naruto stopped at a clearing, believing that this position was far enough away and safe enough, he was now out of his unnatural mist also quite a distance from the site of the minor conflict. He felt particularly pleased with himself as neither of the Leaf Nins had seen him or his clone. Two thuds behind him signalled the arrival of his fellow criminal Shinobi.

Meizu immediately spoke, "Who are you?"

Naruto pulled his forehead-protector out of his pocket, showed it to them before replacing it, "Forgotten me already nii-san?"

"Nii-san? What the hell are you talking about?"

Naruto raised an eyebrow behind his scarf, "With a memory like that, I wonder why Zabuza-sama took you as subordinates…"

Gozu tilted his head sideways before widening his eyes, "Naruto-sama?"

"Bingo." Naruto pulled down his scarf, exposing his face.

Meizu glanced at his brother before taking a long look at Naruto, "If you are truly Naruto-sama, you will know what my brother had taught you at your fifth birthday."

"Suiton: Suiro no Jutsu." (Water Element: Water Prison Technique) 

Gozu smiled with cracked lips before making a formal bow, "It has been a long time Naruto-sama, and I see you have grown, in both age and skill."

Naruto smiled, the lines around his eyes creasing as he inclined his head, "I'd like to think that, though I have to wonder what you two were doing caged by the Leaf."

Meizu tightened his eyes before shaking his head, "We fought against the Leaf Jounin, Hatake Kakashi, as shown, we lost. Damn guy outclassed us too far, was like a puppy fighting a wolf."

Frowning, the blonde looked at one of his former teachers, "Hatake-san, I've met him. He enjoys pornographic books and tends to use unorthodox fighting methods. Seems really laid back too."

Gozu snorted, "It may seem that way, Naruto-sama, but he is powerful, from what I've heard, he's known to be a lower S-Class Shinobi. Its no wonder Zabuza-sama died when they fought."

Naruto's eyes widened, "What?"

Gozu looked at him strangely, "What?"

Shaking his head, Naruto's hands balled into fists, "You said Zabuza-sama was dead!"

Gozu's confused expression changed to sympathetic, "Yes, Naruto-sama. Zabuza-sama fought against the great Copy-Nin in Wave Country. Didn't hear much but what I do know is he's buried there as well along with Haku, his other subordinate."

"Haku? Who's Haku?"

"You mean who _was_ Haku. Heh, kid was a lot like you, Naruto, smart, strong and empathetic. We picked him up when we found he had an Advanced Bloodline Limit, apparently his clan had been almost completely wiped out fighting the Kaguya's Clan."

"The Kaguya's? I only ever met one of them, didn't they us their bones as weapons?"

"Yeah, they did, but apparently their unstable nature made them attack Kirigakure, resulting in being destroyed. Such a shame, two of the Mist's most potent Bloodlines gone in a span of years."

Quietly, a shocked Uzumaki sat down on the grass with a thump. Still trying to get his mind around the fact that his old sensei was dead.

Meizu watched him with concern but noted himself about their needs for survival, placing a hand on Naruto's shoulder he spoke, "I am sorry for yours and our loss, Naruto-sama, but we most go, the two Chuunin will be reporting this to the Konoha Sandaime and this area will be investigated. We must go; I hope we meet up somewhere else some time in the future." Nodding to his brother, they both straightened up and disappeared, leaving Naruto alone with his thoughts.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Snarling Naruto's fist collided with another tree, giving it a noticeable dent. He had thought about Momochi Zabuza's death and noted that he had only had conscious knowledge of him at age four. He also knew that Zabuza was a cruel Shinobi, going so far as to torment and torture his victims over a quick death, but he was still what Naruto considered to be a father figure.

Naruto stopped, fists clenched at his sides as he calmed down. He would not avenge the former Nukenin. Zabuza knew what he was getting in to the moment he faced the Copy-nin in combat. Naruto would not hold a grudge against him but that did not mean he had to be friendly with Hatake.

Cursing he slipped into the walls of Konoha, making sure he was unseen as he climbed into the window of his room. It was night now and the lamps were lit in the street with little to no activity. Tomorrow, for the Genins, it would be the Chuunin Exam. He needed to calm down and sleep, tomorrow and the two days after that would be the only time in which there would be few Shinobi around Konoha as most are mediating the Chuunin Exams, guarding the entrances or at meetings. This was the opportunity he needed to practise the new skills he had acquired.

He tossed his Shinobi equipment into the poorly hidden stash before lying on the bed. Blue eyes glinted in the moonlight as he glared furiously at the ceiling. Tonight he needed to sleep; it'll be a long time of exhausting practise tomorrow.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Naruto chuckled as he watched Shikamaru and Ino edge away from Chouji, or else known as the 'Tub of lard' as labelled by Kiba. The overweight boy was eating at an insane rate, slurping the ramen up and it going down like a well oiled machine, albeit a loud, ugly and nasty machine but at the rate he was going, Old Man Ichiraku looked like he'd won the jackpot.

"Are you done yet, Chouji? I want to get this over with as soon as possible." Shikamaru lazily stretched as he looked at his best friend from the corner of his eye.

"No! For something as important as the Chuunin Exams, I must feed myself enough to have the energy needed!"

"Chouji, you keep this up we'll be late!" Ino sat there, with a thoroughly irritated look on her face.

Naruto waved a hand at them, "You've got about twenty minutes left; you can relax…" Ino glanced at him with irritation; obviously she wanted to get there early, "… Of course they offer free dango before entering."

Chouji's eyes widened and he stood up, spilling the ramen bowel in the process, "Yosh!"

He leapt out the store, his feet crunching against the gravel at high speeds.

Shikamaru watched the after image of his overweight friend with interest before turning to face Naruto with an irritated expression, "So troublesome."

Naruto bit back a laugh as Ino yanked Shikamaru's chair out from beneath him before bodily dragging him out the shop by his ponytail, "Thank you for the Ramen, Yasha-kun, and the money's at the table!"

Naruto snorted, cashed it in and glanced around the shop. No one was in; chances are is that they're all going to be cheering for the Konoha Genins. Pulling his apron off, he hung it up and walked right out the door, but not before flipping the sign from 'Welcome' to 'Closed'.

Striding into one of the Genin training fields, he pulled out a chipped kunai from one of the rather bedraggled dummies. His drew his arm back and lashed out, the kunai flashing forward.

"Kage Shuriken no Jutsu!" _(Shuriken Shadow Clone Technique)_

Naruto looked on with a rather annoyed expression as a total of two popped into existence, one lasting about two seconds before falling apart and dispersing while the other travelled at a significantly slower speed. He cursed at his lack in skill at Shadow Clones. Pulling another kunai from the dummy, he repeated the process, this time four popping into existence with three travelling at the lower speed and one dispersing before reaching its target, the tree. Naruto shrugged. Least it was an improvement.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Naruto stared down at the rectangular stadium, noting the Teams that had passed the first and second exam. Now, apparently it was the preliminaries for the Final Exam. He'd spent the better part of the last few days before now practising his new Konoha stolen Jutsu's, in terms of use, he was competent with the Shadow Shuriken Technique but the Grand Fireball? _The fire went the wrong way_. Naruto discovered he had absolutely no ability, skill or talent in that area. The only fire based technique he would be able to use would be a blast note sadly enough. Naruto had attempted a few more times before giving up due to his rather painful throat after the multiple failures. He felt that a well deserved rest by getting to watch the Genins from so many other Countries in action would be good for him. Indeed there was even one Mist Genin, led by a Jounin Instructor, this one seems to have received special conditions as Naruto had been told that he was the only person in the exam to not be in a team due to being trained by a single instructor all to himself. Naruto chuckled as he watched the man with his oversized sword, he liked the Mist's Chuunin Vest, and maybe he'd design his own variant.

From his point in the stands he didn't bother to hear what was being said as all the Genins who had survived until now were arrayed before Fire Country's Kage, whom stood on a platform, rather he just ignored him.

He rubbed his hands in anticipation as he watched the Shinobi disperse, all standing on the viewing platforms. He watched the screen as the names flashed for a moment;

**Inuzuka Kiba**

**vs**

**Tsuchi Kin**

The mutt let out a loud whoop before leaping off the railing and onto the concrete floor, of which the Sound Genin responded by simply leaping into the air gracefully and landing on one knee.

Both fighters strode to the centre of the battleground, the referee, Gekko Hayate, was a sickly looking Jounin who was looking at the girl with interest, her Forehead-Protector in particular.

_Hnnh… The Sound, interesting._

Kiba grinned as he stared at his opponent, his hands curved like claws he sneered, "I'm going to pound your skinny arse back to musical land where you came from!"

Disdainfully, she turned her nose into the air at him, "You couldn't if you tried dog boy, your leash is so short that it'd choke you before you reached me."

With a snarl he snapped at her.

Hayate looked at the two with bemusement, "Now, now kiddies, you'll be able to kill each other in… Actually, now. Hajime!"

Startled by the sudden beginning of the match, Kiba was momentarily stunned when the girl leapt backwards, loosing a volley of needles before he could react. Shielding himself with his arms, his upper body became a pin cushion, his eyes glaring at the Sound Genin; he pulled out a kunai and charged. Smiling, the Kunoichi launched continued to back away in measured lengths, her hands flicking out incessantly. Kiba snarled, "Such bad aim, girl, no wonder you female Nin are so weak!" This resulted in several of the female ninja to bristle with the exception of Hyuuga Hinata. His sensei, Hatake, simply clapped a hand over his eyes and hoped that he would have enough body-parts left after the match.

Kin smile stretched into a feral grin as she finally stopped. Each needle she had thrown was connected to one of her fingers, resulting in the entire arena filled with lethally sharp wires. Kiba snarled as he continued his charge, a hand seal forming he yelled,

"Bunshin no Jutsu!"

Four materialised and leapt in front of their creator, beginning the charge, all four popped almost simultaneously, causing Kiba to skid to a stop.

_Bladed wires. Don't think I'll fall for that, Sound Genin!_

His hands flowed into several seals,

"_Gatsuuga_!"

Revolving at high speed, he tore through the wires, comically snapping sounds filled the arena as he cut through more and more. Kin nimbly sidestepped it, the smile still adorning her face as she set off one of the bells behind Kiba. Instinctively the Inuzuka spun away from Kin, believing that the bell sound was supposed to be the real Sound Genin and the one he was facing, a clone. Kin's smile widened as she tossed a kunai and watched the explosive tag on it catch alight and explode, leaving the confused Leaf Genin directly in the blast.

"Winner: Tsuchi Kin!

Naruto shook his head dismally at the performance of the Konoha Leaf Genin, The Sound Shinobi didn't even put in much effort and the silly mutt walked right into the trap, of course it was a double layered trap but still very simple. If all of the Leaf Nins of this generation were at the fur-parka-loving-in-summer's level, then the Leaf will become decrepit before long. He watched as the Leaf Nin be set on a stretcher and removed form the Arena while the Sound Genin went back to her viewing platform next to her team mates and watched the now rapidly flashing screen.

**Kinata Doso**

**vs**

**Uchiha Sasuke **

**------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ **

With a groan, Kiba opened his eyes to the ceiling of the large Arena; he blinked when he noticed Sakura's green eyes boring down on him with anger before a fist slammed him in the face.

"The hell you do that for eh?" Snarled the hot-headed boy.

"You're an arsehole and you deserve to be castrated repeatedly due to your sexist comment!" Shouted the pink haired girl.

"Well, _sorry_, but I have yet to see anything impressive coming from you lot." Sakura smirked at that, "Well you didn't see Hinata-chan just now, and also I doubt Hana-_neesan_ is going to be too happy when she finds out about your comments!"

The youngest of the Inuzuka Clan paled eyes wide he asked, "When did you meet Hana?"

"She was the one who carried you out here after you got knocked out. Knocked out by a _Kunoichi_ too, so you really can't say anything, baka."

With a roar he sat up, "WHAT?"

"Your match against the Sound Genin had you completely pounded; even Kakashi-sensei said you were a baka for doing what you did." The smug girl was openly grinning now.

"Ugh. That's just sad." He turned his head around counting the people still in the arena, "Wait, where's Sasuke-teme? Lemme guess, he got beat up and shipped off to the hospital?"

A resounding slap echoed through the stadium causing many eyes to be attracted to them, "Don't you dare say that about Sasuke-kun! He's just getting a check-up at the hospital after he won!"

"Really? What for?"

She looked around before leaning in and speaking in a whisper, "Remember that evil snake-man we fought in the forest? He did something to Sasuke-kun and now Kakashi-sensei and the examiner of the Second Exam is fixing it."

At that, Kiba was alarmed, "What did Oro… The snake guy do?"

"You remember when Sasuke-kun when berserk and nearly killed the Sound-nin?" Sakura shifted uncomfortably as she told her tale, "That was the snake man's influence; normally Sasuke-kun would never do that!"

"Oh… Well, what have I missed while I was out?" A feeble attempt to change the subject but Sakura grabbed it like a drowning man (or in this case woman) to a boat.

"Oh! You've missed six fights. The one where Sasuke-kun fought that weird Sound-mummy and he kicked his ass with Taijutsu alone! Then there was Shino-san who fought Yoroi Akado who won as well, also there was Misumi Tsurugi who fought the Sand Guy in the cat suit… He got killed when the sand guy used some sort of puppet to snap his neck. Well then there was the Hyuugas fighting each other, I don't understand too much but Neji-san seemed really angry and nearly killed Hinata-san. Then there was the match when the Sound Genin who Sasuke-kun … maimed, fought against Sabaku no Gaara… He died as well. The last match so far was between Nara Shikamaru and Rock Lee, Shikamaru-san used some sort of Jutsu which made Lee-san copy his movements and repeatedly smash his head into the wall, making Lee-san faint, it just ended when you woke up. It'll be my turn soon…" She bit her lip nervously as the majority of combatants who she would be faced off against were strong.

**Abareru Heijia**

**vs**

**Tenten**

Sakura leaned against the wall in a sigh of relief as she noted that she did not have to fight the rather intimidating Mist Genin. As the Mist Shinobi slowly walked down the stairs into the Arena, she got a good look at him. He wore a plain black tank top and both his hands were wrapped in bandages up till the bottom of his elbow. His pants were black as well, rolled up at the knees with bandages covering his shins, black sandals covered his feet and his Mist Forehead-Protector hung at his neck, his pants were held up by a tightly wrapped white sash and at his back was a large curved sword that could almost match Zabuza's. While Zabuza's had been bright silver, his was a dull grey, also the Genin's was curved and while its width was almost that of Kubikiri Houcho its length was only three quarts of it. The sword ended at a point and the way it was made, made it obvious it was for cutting. His face was masked similarly like Zabuza and his hair was spiked up so that they all faced forward.

Hatake Kakashi arrived back from taking care of his student to a barrage of questions concerning 'Sasuke-kun' from the only female genin in his team, he smiled beneath the mask, "He will be fine." Slowly, he leaned against the wall, "So who's fighting who now?"

"It's right now the Mist Shinobi against Tenten, a Genin from a year above me."

"Ahh, that's one of Gai's students."

"Yosh! Kakashi Rival! My student's eternal Fountain of Youth will force the hipness of her opponent to dim and she shall be victorious!"

Indeed, when Kakashi looked, the Mist Genin looked thoroughly bored; he raised his single visible eye at Gai, "Just like Lee-kun?"

Those three words had the adult spandex Jounin crying about something along the lines of the Fires of Youth muffled by the Shadows of Age, for the vast amount, the perverted Jounin just ignored it.

Hayate coughed as he looked between the Kunoichi and her male counterpart. While the girl was tense and ready to move at a moment's notice, the Mist Genin was in a relaxed stance, not even batting an eyelash at the girl's glare.

"Ahem, match between Abareru Heijia and Tenten will now begin. Hajime!"

Drawing a few kunai, the Weapons Mistress leapt back and threw them, the mysterious swordsman before her simply swaying to the side. Repeating her previous actions with more kunai and no leap, she watched as the Heijia knocked one aside with a kunai in his hand and swayed away from the rest. Pulling out two more kunai connected to a pair of wires she threw it, watching him to make sure he doesn't use Kawarami and out from the corner of her eye, she smiled as the two kunai arced around, eventually forcing him to jump into the air to avoid being bound. In reaction to this, Tenten threw a barrage of shuriken's narrowing her eyes when he formed seals and called out.

"_Suiton: Kakura Senbon no Jutsu_!" (Water Element: Bolt Senbon Technique)

From his pursed lips, several little streams of water came out and the speed was comparable with those thrown by the Weapons Mistress. All these streams consecutively connected with the projectile weapons and systematically knocked each off course, effectively cancelling them as he landed a safe distance away. Snarling, she bit her thumb, hands flashing through seals before slamming her palm on the floor.

"_Kuchiyose no Jutsu_!" (Summoning Technique)

A steel quarterstaff appeared in her hands, the ends weighted to cause extra damage, she whirled it around, allowing herself maximum mobility as she charged at him to engage in close combat.

Naruto in the stands raised an eyebrow as he smiled. A Leaf Weapons Master fighting against a Mist Swordsmen, this should be interesting. Though he was jealous of the Mist Genin for his sword.

Heijia calmly stood his ground as she charged, easily drawing his curved cleaver from his back, he waited for her approach. The staff's end jabbed out in a stabbing motion and Heijia leaned backwards, avoiding the blow where he began a backhanded slash with his right hand, it was parried by the other end of the steel staff. The original side of the staff that had made the staff swished towards his head again forcing him to lean back further allowing it slice past without causing himself harm. From his position, he used his free hand to grab Tenten's arm keeping it from wielding her staff effectively and pulled back his sword for a second backhanded slash which was once again blocked when the Kunoichi used her free hand to manoeuvre her quarterstaff in a vertical position blocking it and leaving the two deadlocked for a moment before Tenten flicked a kunai into her trapped hand and tossed it backwards, forcing him to let go. That allowed was all she needed as with both arms, she overpowered his one hand that held the sword, make it swing away and in that time flipped her quarterstaff and made several jabbing motion, slamming the end repeatedly into the Mist Nin's torso.

With a grunt, he stepped back several times, his left free hand covered the bruises forming on his stomach while the sword hand was at his side, the sword itself had its end scraping the floor. In an unexpected snarl, the masked Shinobi, performed a few seals.

"_Futon: Enmu Karite no Jutsu_!" (Wind Element: Haze Reaper Technique)

Swinging his blade, the air currents caused by it solidified into a hazy blue shadow of the disturbance and sped towards the Weapons Master at high speeds. Spinning out of the way she was grabbed by the throat and thrown into the wall by Heijia who had followed his own Jutsu and surprised her. Ignoring the pounding headache in her head at being thrown head first at the concrete wall, she winced at the loud explosion from the original Jutsu. Slowly she got to her knees, freezing when she felt cold steel pressing against the back of her neck. She raised her brown eyes and noticed the swordsmen standing next to her, his sword levered to at the nape. She sighed, "I surrender."

Hayate smiled, after the Mist Nin had used the Wind Element technique he knew he'd win, from what he'd seen, the budding Weapon's Mistress wasn't equipped to deal with them.

"Winner: Abareru Heijia"

Naruto chuckled as sat down at his seat, resting his chin again the railing from his viewing point. That battle had been an enjoyable experience, whoever the Genin was, he was good, a bit arrogant as he had obviously underestimated the girl, but he was good. He'd love to fight him some day. Watching, he realised that there were only four people left, meaning only two matches. This source of entertainment was running out of steam. Naruto sighed sadly.

The screen names began their blitz again and stopped at one which would result in Shikamaru saying 'Troublesome.'

**Yamanaka Ino**

**Vs**

**Haruno Sakura**

The beginning of this match was slightly bit embarrassing for any powerful Shinobi to say the least. The repeated use of Kawarami and minor kunai skirmishes made Naruto cringe at the low level of skill and lack of higher level techniques involved, mostly, it was more like a battle of wills. This eventually led to a the current situation.

Ino glared into the smoke, a kunai held in reverse, she backed towards a wall to make sure she only had three sides to guard against. Sakura had loosed off a volley of smoke bombs which now ended up with Ino at least, being practically blind, how Sakura could see through this, she didn't know. Her eyes widened when she heard a whistling sound, the smoke parted like a twister in water when several dozen kunai all honed into her location, every second one with a blast note attached.

"I made this trick for you Ino!

_Sakura Fubuki no Jutsu_!" (Sakura Blizzard Technique)

Eyes widening Ino's hands went through several seals before she opened her eyes.

"_Shintenshin: Saiko Araiso no Jutsu_!" (Psycho Wave Technique)

A visible haze surrounded Ino for a moment, much like hot air and each kunai directed at her stopped as if caught by an invisible wall, a second haze around her as she narrowed her eyes.

"Release!"

The kunai exploded into the opposite directions several actual blasts were made from the blast notes connected and much to Naruto's amusement, Haruno was revealed to have been nearly caught from one of her own, indicated by her burnt outfit. Stumbling she looked up just in time to see six kunai speeding towards her. As her legs were still unstable, she couldn't dodge and raised her arms to form an 'X' to take the brunt of it as she closed her eyes. Unknown to her, they were only Genjutsu which faded into her and came out the other side. When she opened her eyes, she felt a kunai pricking her throat, and their was Ino standing in front of her holding it. Defeated. She acknowledged that out loud.

"Winner: Yamanaka Ino!"

Naruto whooped loudly, his first loud action ever since coming into Konoha, one fist pumping into the air as she cheered for the blonde. Ino looked up at him and grinned, giving him the 'peace' sign in triumph. That said, it was also the last interesting match as the last one was basically of the fat Shinobi known as Chouji being tossed around like a ragdoll at the hands of Temari and her oversized fan.

Naruto shook his head at that, but reminded himself to give free Ramen to those who had won in congratulation.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

_Whoop. 7063 words, my first time with a chapter this long. I feel tired. Today alone I typed in 2700 thousand._

_Well anyway I hope you lot out there reading this enjoyed it as much as I enjoyed writing this chapter. Do give me feedback as I so enjoy it and just as clarification; I made the Fight scenes as clear as possible. Do review and here's the info on the bunch of Jutsu's I made up. Just to say I used an online translator for this so tell me if I got the wording wrong and I'll fix it._

**Gatsuuga: The Inuzuka Family Bloodline technique. Basically your person morphs into a more canine state and revolves at high speeds while moving, its pretty easy to dodge so it gives that away fro a heap of damaging capability**

**Bunshin no Jutsu: You should all know this one as it basically makes a non solid clone. E-Rank.**

**Suiton: Suiro no Jutsu: Used by Zabuza against Hatake Kakashi, basically it traps the victim in a bubble of water and drowns he/she inside. It can be disrupted by someone with a Hyuuga's level of chakra control so its pretty useless against medic-nins and Genjutsu specialists. C-Rank**

**Suiton: Kakura Senbon no Jutsu: I had explained this in the story and will explain it again. Simply imagine little senbons (You know the thing that Genma's always chewing) made of water being spat out at high speeds. Hitting a person with it only hurts him or her but does no significant damage, however, its rapid firing rate could be used to deflect projectile attacks as shown by my OC. D-Rank.**

**Futon: Enmu Karite no Jutsu: This is formed when the user swings his or her weapon which creates a blade of wind, more powerful in a small concentrated area and weaker as the swing is longer. C-Rank.**

**Kuchiyose no Jutsu: Summoning technique; can be used to summon everything from a spear to a fish. **

**Sakura Fubuki no Jutsu: This was originally performed by Sakura in the first Naruto movie, I just changed it a little to suit my needs for this part of the story, think of it as the prototype. Basically all it does is use several Blast Notes in a concentrated area.**

**Shintenshin: Saiko Araiso no Jutsu: I wasn't too sure on how to type this as I've never seen Ino use too many techniques but this is how I did it. Anyway, it creates a mental wall around the user, stopping any solid object from hitting the user, freezing it in the process. Once the user says 'Release' though, it throws nthe projectiles back at double the speed.**

_I think got them all. For those which are ranked, they are either my creations to which I ranked them or they are officially ranked. The unranked ones are basically that. Unranked._

_Anyway, as a heads-up, Naruto will NEVER become a Leaf Nin, he'll support them at one point, but he will never become one._

_Nuebus_


	4. Invasion

Invasion

_Author's Note: In the anime they had gotten the Kage colour wrong with the Kazekage; technically his hat is supposed to be grey and for this story's his hat will be grey._

The Sandaime of Konoha shuffled onto the rather damaged platform as the victorious Genin stood in a row before him. There were ten of them; Tsuchi Kin, Uchiha Sasuke, Aburame Shino, Sabaku no Gaara, Sabaku no Temari, Sabaku no Kankuro, Hyuuga Neji, Nara Shikamaru, Yamanaka Ino and Abereru Heijia. One Sound, three Sand, five Leaf and one Mist. His face cracked into a smile as he opened his arms.

"You are the victorious Genin of the Preliminaries. You have only one more step before you are Chuunin! As I had said before, this is the path of Shinobi, combat, war and bloodshed, but even now, with you separated from your team mates, you will be supported by them and your village! Today however, the Preliminaries End and thirty days from now, the true Final Exams will begin. You will be given your opponents now. Watch the screen." With that, the old man walked off the stage and disappeared.

The Genin collectively turned to face the screen;

**Tsuchi Kin vs. Aburame Shino**

Swearing was heard by the girl while the Bug User remained impassive.

**Hyuuga Neji vs. Uchiha Sasuke**

The white-eyed Genin drew his eyes towards the Uchiha with a snort before walking away. The sound of cheering from a certain pink bimbo filled the stadium.

**Sabaku no Temari vs. Yamanaka Ino**

Both blondes looked at each other with a look of disgust and loathing as they headed away.

**Sabaku no Kankuro vs. Nara Shikamaru**

While the Sand Genin grinned at getting a chance to fight the lazy shinobi; the shadow-user stared at the ceiling and sighed, "Troublesome."

**Sabaku no Gaara vs. Abereru Heijia**

Both males gave each other a long look before walking away.

Naruto chuckled at the pairings, even now; he could predict some of the matches. Aburame Shino would dominate the Sound Genin as she, being a support and Genjutsu User would be no match for the scent smelling and chakra draining bugs. He'd bet that the Hyuuga would win due to what their family Bloodline Limit could do and he was older with more experience. Also considering he'd seen what Sabaku no Kankuro could do, he'd suppose the Nara had as well, so would most likely win by using his Shadow on the real person instead of the puppet. The only one he didn't know about was the match between the two blondes. While Sabaku no Temari had a powerful offence, it could be countered by the Yamanaka Bloodline's defensive capabilities; the match would be interesting to say the least. The last match, the one known as Gaara fighting the Mist Genin was going to be worth watching. Even Naruto didn't know who would actually win.

Naruto filed out of the stadium along with the other civilians and occasional Chuunin who had come to watch. After that entertainment was done, he supposed that there would be more customers now at the Ramen shop. Slowly heading back, he thought of the matches that had happened so far. The match between the Sound Genin and the famed Uchiha had been odd to say the least. He'd seen him use several fire techniques but in this case, he used absolutely none. That team was more or less, one of the first to arrive, so he had ample time to stock up on chakra but all he used was Taijutsu. Halfway through his invention, the _Shishi Rendan_, he had momentarily paused, resulting in Dosu nearly managing a swing with that specialized arm of his. His grin of triumph had morphed into one of pain. Considering that this wasn't the lotus like the one Lee-san nearly used on Shikamaru, it shouldn't cause too much external damage or strain to the muscles. Strange to say the least, it would be worth investigating when he had the time.

The match between the Hyuugas was … angsty to say the least. That Neji had a lot of hate bottled up inside him. Chances are is that it had something to do with the whole Main and Branch Family thing they have going on. Interesting but it would reveal itself in time. Kid also believed a lot in fate as well, either that's just a way for him to mentally beat his opponents down or he wasn't kidding about it. Also the combat style used was strange, it seemed that the way they 'jab' their opponents with their fingertips has hidden damage potential, from watching closely, he'd noticed that the girl was being damaged by small brushes when their skin touched. Such a combat style and plus their _Doujutsu_ would be worth his time to check out, after all, there's a chance he's going to end up fighting one some day.

Then there was Gaara; a Sand Genin who has yet to be touched in combat and also completed a B-Class Mission. On paper, he's impressive. In reality he's even more impressive, other then the psycho 'I must kill them all' point of view he takes. The sentient sand is interesting to say the least, acting as an offensive and defensive mechanism. Naruto had never seen something like that which could be constantly maintained. The only problem Naruto saw was its speed, a high speed Shinobi would easily be bale to get around it so chances are is that he has a second layer of protection as while the sand is formidable, its not powerful enough offensive wise to allow him to only have on layer of defence that could be quiet easily by-passed by Taijutsu experts. The redhead should also be watched.

And then, last we have Abareru Heijia. During his match, Naruto had taken a look at his Jounin Instructor. And lo and behold, the Jounin Instructor was none other then Nukiuchi Raiden, a current member of the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist and one of his instructors of old. Ever since the exile of Zabuza and Naruto, the Blades master had not changed one bit. He still wore his brown hair in a pony tail, as with his Forehead-Protector still wrapped around his right bicep. He wore a Chuunin Vest that typical Chuunin and Jounin deign to wear. Naruto still thought the Mist version was much better looking then the Leaf version which was riddled with pockets. His sleeves were rolled up until mid forearm with both hands wearing fingerless gloves and a metal plate on the back of those. Like his shirt, his pants were black but his right thigh had a pouch strapped on. Unlike his student however, his pants were not rolled up, rather, they extended all the way down to mid-shin, with bandages exposed there and which ended at his black sandals. Like his outfit, a black sword was hung at his back. It was unlike the cleaver his student and former comrade, Zabuza used. While its length matched that of Kubikiri Houcho, its width did not. It was as straight and shaped similarly to Zabuza's great sword, but its width was a third of that and it did not have the round hole not indented arc; it did have the same point though. Basically, it was a back, long, straight blade. From first glance, Naruto knew it was designed to be held in two hands, but like a Bastard Sword, it could be used in one, temporarily.

The thing that was so interesting was that the majority of the Seven Swordsmen just did not take apprentices very often, Naruto had been given his training on order of the Mizukage so why was Abareru being trained by him singularly? Like the other four, this one was worth noting.

Shaking his head at the enigma that was the Mist Genin, Naruto headed back to the Ramen Shop to set it up as he awaited customers.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Elsewhere…

"Hokage-sama."

The Sandaime looked up from writing his report as he noted the appearance of a single ANBU, his cat mask watching him impassively.

"Yes? ANBU-san?"

"Your suspicions about Mamori Yasha are correct sir. He is no civilian, but a Shinobi."

"Indeed, ANBU-san? What have you found as proof?" The Hokage wrinkled his elderly face.

"The escape of the two Missing-nin called the Demon Brothers; was orchestrated by him. Also, he used Kirigakure no Jutsu which is a Mist technique which leads me to believe he is a Mist Missing-nin."

"Really? Have you found his real identity?"

"I am sorry, Hokage-sama, I was too far away when the Demon Brothers and 'Mamori Yasha' were speaking. But there is also one other thing,"

"Yes…?" The Sandaime gestured for him to continue.

"He has learnt a Leaf Chuunin technique. Kage Shuriken no Jutsu, he has also attempted a Katon but has had absolutely no success, going so far as to backfire several times."

The Sandaime steepled his fingers as he thoughtful stared at them, "Continue your surveillance, other then releasing two low level Missing-nin; he has not made any true effort in hostility. Watch him and wait."

"Yes, Hokage-sama." With that, the ANBU faded from sight.

_Completely unable to perform a Katon jutsu; even backfiring. Unless he has dismal chakra control, something like that should not happen, but he does have good chakra control as it was reported that he was successful with the Kage Shuriken. Unable to perform Katons… Where have I heard that before…?_

The elderly Hokage shook his head,

_Now is not the time to worry about a single Shinobi, after all Jiraiya has discovered a plot for an invasion during the Chuunin Exams, we must prepare. Though I will wonder about you 'Yasha-san', I wonder who you truly are…_

_----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- _

"…And swoosh! You should have seen Forehead-girl's face when her own kunai went right back at her! The silly girl actually thought I didn't improve with my Bloodline!"

Complete with sound effects and hand gestures, Ino was repeating her victory over her rival for the third time to Naruto, who still smiled and nodded in true amusement at how enthusiastic the girl was.

"Ahh, but I did, Ino-chan. She did look a wee bit flustered, especially after she had realised she's lost."

"I know! I am Yamanaka Ino and I kick forehead girl's butt!"

Chouji grinned next to her, "Yes, yes, Ino kicks all Shinobi's butts, she is the master! Especially since I get so much free Ramen! Another bowl!"

Shikamaru, Ino and Naruto all simultaneously sweat-dropped at that while in the background Teuchi glared balefully at Naruto for offering them free Ramen. It was Chouji's ninth bowl.

"Well, Ino, what do you think of your next opponent?"

She looked up as she swallowed the last amount of her first and last bowl of ramen, "I'm a little bit worried but not really that worried, as that Sound girl shouldn't be able to break through my Saiko Araiso no Jutsu, but the Release would be a wasted amount of chakra as she's not throwing things at me. Saiko Araiso must use the Release as well within several seconds or else the kunai go straight through the barrier."

Shikamaru's bored facial slowly turned to face her, "Then use something else; that technique of hers won't be able to cut through everything so create barriers using a smaller amount of chakra. Just make sure you don't use something like your 'Sasuke-kun's' fire techniques or else you're screwed."

Ino's expression darkened as she glared at the bowl, "Not Sasuke-_kun_ but Sasuke-_teme_."

Chouji ignored Shikamaru's warning hand signs and asked anyway, "Why is that?"

"Sasuke-_teme_ rejected me again."

"He rejects you all the time, what makes this time so different?" A resounding slap with Ino's palm connected with Chouji's head echoed through the shop.

"He rejected me on the bridge in the east side of Konoha and pushed me into the water!"

"Ouch. That's gotta hurt." Noted Naruto; although inwardly, he was quite pleased.

He blinked when he realised he was staring down the length of a single chopstick held by an irate Ino, "I don't want your sympathy!"

Naruto stepped back as the homicidal blonde took out her anger on her team mates.

_Team Ten was always fun to be around._

_----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- _

A week passed with Team 10 occasionally showing up as Naruto did his full-day shifts as punishment for his disappearance before. Every time they weren't at the Ramen Shop, Naruto assumed they were training, though he thought that it was likely to be self training as their Jounin Instructor, Asuma, seemed a bit too laid back.

On this particular day, after a week of constant work, Naruto finally had an entire free day. Actually two free days as he was now settled into a routine of five working days and then two free days. His current action was wandering around Konohagakure, a dango stick hanging from his mouth as he walked. He had developed a liking for those and enjoyed them at every opportunity, even while cooking. Using the stripped dango stick to pick at his teeth, he scratched his head with his free hand before pulling the stick back out and snapping it before throwing it over his shoulder. Due to the fact he was currently standing next to the bathing house, an 'Ouch' from inside bushes would attract his attention. Slowly he turned around, finding it hard to believe he missed the piece of human art sitting in the bushes.

Investigating he noted the pair of brown eyes glaring at him. The man was obviously old, though he aged quite well, considering his lack of wrinkles. He was dressed in a red robe that, if it was supposed to make him look powerful, failed dismally as it made him look more or less comical.

"Ah, old man, tell me, what exactly are you doing…" Naruto eye's travelled back to the wall where there was a hole, "Ahh, peeping, I thought you old people got those hormones out of your system?"

"Never! For I am THE expert super pervert!" Naruto winced at that loud voice, "Exactly what is your name, super-pervert?"

"My name? Of course you would want to know my name! I am Konoha's Toad Sannin, one of the Legendary Three, Author of the Icha Icha Paradise series and Super Pervert, Jiraiya!"

Naruto's eyebrow twitched.

_Long winded, no?_

"Ahh, the author of the Icha Icha Paradise, I was wondering what that Shinobi was reading when I was first arrived, Well, uhh, Perverted Sannin, I'll just take my leave of you."

"Yes, yes, go kid; I have to collect information for my books now. Oh, and don't tell anyone I'm here." He called back at the retreating form of Naruto.

_Hmph. Strange kid, didn't even take offence to me peep- uhh, researching, even most Hyuugas would at least be a little bit embarrassed to be seen talking with one such as me. Ahh well, I'll check up on him later._

Naruto slowly shook his head as he walked away with his hands in his pockets. It seemed the more powerful a Shinobi the more eccentric they were. Even Naruto had heard of the Legendary Three, the Konoha Sannins which had separated due to Orochimaru's defection. The Legendary Three combined were Konoha's version of the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist and were said to be very deadly. It was also known that Konoha's Yondaime had been trained by the man he just met and he was very important attribute to the Leaf's victory over the Stone. Strange how he showed up now though, Jiraiya was known to travel all over the lands for his 'research'. Also, why hadn't there been talk of such a legendary figure within the walls of Konoha? It seemed just a bit too secret. Speaking of which there were only a few ANBU, Chuunins and Jounins at the Arena as well, there is definitely something strange going on. Shaking his head, he moved toward the lake, to assuage his bored body by skimming stones. Though it seemed that someone had already arrived before him; Abareru Heijia, the Mist Genin at the Chuunin Exams.

Naruto stopped and watched the Genin from behind a tree. The Mist Shinobi was practising blade katas, swinging the great cleaver back and forth repetitively. These were the same techniques his Jounin Instructor, Nukiuchi Raiden used. That simply proves that he was under his tutelage.

_Perhaps he is being trained as a replacement to become one of the Seven, after all, nearly half of the Seven Swordsmen have become criminals and Missing-nin, so far the most dangerous being shark-like Shinobi, Hoshigake Kisame. If the Shark man hadn't gone on his killing spree around with the daimyo's in water country, he could have been Mizukage._

Naruto's thoughts were interrupted when the Abareru stood up straight, his blue eyes staring at the tree Naruto was hiding behind, "You can come out now."

Naruto blinked, this time he had made a visible effort to remain undetected unlike when he was purposely trying to be from the Uchiha. He shrugged in bemusement and stepped out, "How'd you know I was there?"

The ninja looked at him steadily before pointing at his Forehead-Protector hanging around his neck, "The water in your area stopped splashing to the ground when it sprayed on you instead. Also there was a disturbance in the water vapour."

Naruto narrowed his eyes at those detection techniques.

_That's lower Mist Jounin detection techniques, also could be used in Assassination Techniques as well. This guy is definitely something else._

"You are Shinobi." It wasn't a question; it was a statement, which shocked Naruto. Steadily, the Mist Nin continued to watch Naruto without a single bit of loss in focus.

"Why do you say that?" asked Naruto in a slightly strained but casual voice.

"Your stealth techniques are at Chuunin Level, enough to bypass most Genin. You were also analyzing me. Why?"

"And I ask why you think I was analyzing you?"

'You watched my blade katas and from your body language, you also recognised some of the stances. Who are you?"

Naruto backed away, hesitating; he stared back at the emotionless Genin, "I am Mamori Yasha, civilian."

The other Shinobi didn't even look irritated as he contradicted him; "You are a Shinobi. You may be able to hide the fact from the others but not from me. Your one mistake was using Shinobi stealth tactics. The others may not have seen those so you remain safe but I have seen them."

Naruto didn't deny it as he backed away, "You are perhaps the first to find such things out. I hope you will not tell?"

"Your business is your own; I have no qualms with you. Leave."

Nodding Naruto backed away into the woods and back into Konoha.

_Found out with ease by a Mist Genin. No, not a Genin; at least mid-Chuunin level. Why would the Mizukage send him all the way out here, with one of the Seven no less? No Kage would waste the time and resources to send such a promising Shinobi so far into foreign land for a promotion; rather, he'd just promote them himself or herself. The puzzle known as Abareru Heijia just gets more and more complex, however it would do him well to stay away, someone who knows his secret can easily dangle it above his head…_

Within the streets of Konoha he noticed the civilians parting way once more, this time not to allow exit but entrance. Whoever held such influence to cause such a busy area part ways must be important. Curiously Naruto headed over, even at his above average height, he had to stand on tiptoe to see over the heads of so many people. He was sorely tempted to just jump on a roof to look. His eyes widened further; Blue hat, Six Chuunin Vests. Oh dear. Naruto was screwed now, yep, chances are is he's going to have a very bad time.

It was the Mizukage and six of his Jounin bodyguards. They were all riding horses, with the Mizukage riding the only white one of the group. The rest were riding bays and black horses. Three of the Jounin held oversized swords similar to Heijia's and Zabuza's with two of them carrying normal katanas, the last wore three of them; two on one hip and the last at his back. The Mizukage himself had one of the oversized swords; considering the 'firepower' in the fingers of these Shinobi; it could be considered an invasion, and when you add that to the fact that there are Sand Jounin accompanying the Kazekage who came to watch his son; there would be enough power to overwhelm Konoha's ANBU. Today is definitely a strange day.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Three weeks had passed, with Naruto absolutely unable to do any training what-so-ever; Naruto had decided that this charade was due to end, and soon. He had his plan to leave Konohagakure once the Chuunin Exams finish. As luck would have it; things got complex.

Naruto sat at one of the front seats of the circular stadium smiling at the entertainment that was going to ensue. The first match between the Sound Genin and Bug User was going to be rather one sided, Naruto predicted, the chances of the girl winning was close to nil. Sighing, he looked up at the platform to which three of Five Kages' are present; the tension was almost palpable and Naruto found himself very glad that there was no war going on, he wouldn't want to be anywhere near the area if a fight breaks out. Up at their platform the Kage's all sat next to each other in their little thrones. The Hokage sat in the middle with the Mizukage to his right and the Kazekage to his left. There were three Jounins next to and behind the Mizukage with only two next to the Hokage and similarly two next to the Kazekage; one of the three near the Mizukage was part of the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist, the Mist Genin's instructor, from what Naruto had been told; he'd found that Abereru was his nephew and after the death of the father, had been left to the uncle to train. The Mizukage was only here to see the results of the training that the Genin had undergone from the S-Class Shinobi's training. The other three remaining Mist Jounin were all sitting within the crowd of the audience.

As Naruto waited for the match to begin, he reflected on his relationship with the Konoha Genins, for the first Team he met, Team Kakashi, there was a one sided dislike, an obvious reason against the Jounin, but the loud and obnoxious Kiba turns Naruto off, the angst machine and his arrogant ways irritated the blonde and the pink bimbo could put a trumpet to shame, all nasty qualities and a team that won't go anywhere. Team Asuma, other then the Sensei showing up with his Genin Team at Ichiraku's he didn't know him very well, but the Genin's themselves make a rather amusing trio. Effective as well, chances are is that Ino and Shikamaru would one day become ANBU while Chouji rise normally through the ranks. Team Gai, well he knew Tenten quite well as he often spoke to her on his little trips around Konoha and the dynamic duo, Gai and Lee often give him a headache with their speeches, Neji however, he didn't know very well. And then we have Team Kurenai, consisting of a timid Hyuuga known as Hinata, the quiet Aburame Shino and the enigmatic Uesugi Amakazu, Team Kurenai was basically complete strangers to the Nukenin, but Naruto would wish to change that if only to get a better idea on the Byakugan's abilities and see how Amakazu fights. From what he'd been told, Amakazu had decided not to fight in the preliminaries due to being badly wounded in the Forest of Death.

Shaking his head, he focused on the arena as all the audience hushed as a man in a Chuunin Vest casually walked out.

Shiranui Genma the referee of this match walked out, his eyes already scanning the mound of faces for anything suspicious before he cleared his throat, "Alright then, today we've got the Final Matches of the Chuunin Exam, strangely enough Uchiha Sasuke and his Jounin Sensei have yet to make their appearance, the Kage's have agreed to allow them extra time before their match. Anyway their opponents have already been given and without boring you all with a Kage-like speech, we'll begin our first match now!

First up: Tsuchi Kin vs. Aburame Shino!"

In a show of acrobatics, the Kunoichi vaulted over the rail at the combatant waiting area, and then used her newly acquired boots to skid down the wall before pushing herself off, flipping in the air and landing near the centre in a crouch. In complete contrast, the bug user slowly, with measured steps, took the long way down the staircase. Kin flushed with anger. Finally they stood facing opposite each other, Shino in his usual stance, with his hands in his pockets while Kin stood with legs slightly spread, hands with half closed fingers ready to move at a moments notice.

"Hajime!"

Leaping backwards as she did against Kiba, she threw three kunai towards the bug user which, to the stadium's shock, was hit, only to collapse in a sea of bugs. Realising that she had lost sight of the opponent, Kin leapt into the centre, believing that the sun bathed centre was safer then the shadowed corners of the circular arena. Completely seen by the audience, Shino's body slowly built up as bugs put themselves together a few feet behind her. Pulling his left hand out of his pocket, he raised it palm pointing toward the girl's back. Six bugs shot out at high speeds and with the slight 'shnick' sound when a bug skimmed part of Shino's sleeve was all she got for warning before barely leaping aside to see several large explosions happen in front of and where she would have been had she not heard.

Spinning around she narrowed her eyes at the bug user, before pulling a string with each hand, smiling as its reflection brightened and they crisscrossed towards the Aburame. Once again, the bug user scattered into bugs which spilled to the dirt floor.

"Is that all you can do, cockroach!" Screamed out the girl, "I'll kick your arse from here to kingdom come!"

"You will not."

She spun around at the voice which had been so close, her legs already lashing out in a roundhouse kick, noting the Aburame leaping away already, landing pristinely with his hands still in his pockets, he looked impassively at the irate girl. Her hands began a series of seals.

Shino raised an eyebrow as his vision suddenly morphed, the land around him changing into one of red. Slowly he heard a single bell; he noticed it just ringing all alone in the distance. He turned when he heard another bell, ringing in another direction, turning once again at a third bell; he raised an eyebrow at them which slowly faded into existence. A single small bell alone wouldn't affect a person very much, but when there a thousands of bells ringing, it starts to hurt. Grunting, his first emotion seen by Naruto so far, he raised a hand to his ear, covering it. The sounds of the bells were beginning to become very painful when it suddenly faded away.

Then there back in the arena, was Kin lying face down in chakra exhaustion. Shino raised the hand which he had used to cover an ear and extended it out, and he watched impassively as several bugs climbed out from beneath the Sound Genin's clothing and flew back up his sleeve.

"Winner: Aburame Shino!"

_And this blonde is proved right again, next up Hyuuga Neji vs. Uchiha Sasuke, my money's on the Hyuuga._

A Chuunin appeared next to the Jounin Examiner and whispered something into his ear before disappearing much the same way he appeared. With a bored expression, Genma turned to face the crowd, "I am sorry for the delay but Uchiha Sasuke has still not arrived. The Kages' have agreed to allow him more time.

"Next match! Sabaku no Temari vs. Yamanaka Ino!"

Once again; it was another match between Kunoichi's; and in Hatake's perverted mind; it'd be translated to 'catfight'.

"Hajime!"

First thing Temari did was pull out and then open her fan, the three purple dots bared for all to see, in reaction, Ino was already moving sideways, three kunai honing in on the Sand Genin. With a burst of wind, they were all deflected. Ino leapt up, successfully dodging the wind at minimal risk to herself.

Naruto watched the repeats of those actions where Ino dodged and threw and Temari deflected and swung.

_Fighting a mid to long range user in their field is never a good thing, Ino. She uses wind so smoke bombs are useless and explosive tags that can't reach her are pointless. What are you going to do now?_

Ino spun into a crouch as she ducked the last burst of wind, her hands went into her pouch, each hand carrying three shuriken's of which she only threw the ones in her left hand. Once again, the burst of wind deflected it, this time however, Ino charged forwards throwing the last handful and as Temari was still recovering from the last swing, didn't have time to use wind deflection and was forced to use the metal butt of her fan. Once those shuriken fell harmless on the floor, she looked up and prepared to swing again, only to be shocked when she felt a weight land on her fan. There was the blonde Leaf Genin, crouched on her fan, kunai raised for a backhanded swing.

Dropping the fan and the girl atop it, Temari yanked out a kunai, blocking the swing and pulling off a thrust of her own. Backing away from the now angry Sand Genin, Ino switched the kunai to her left hand, and pulled out three more, one between each finger of her right hand as she threw it. Explosive tags hanging from the end.

_At least you taught me that much, Sakura, explosive tags are handy._

Jumping straight up to avoid the kunai thrown at her feet, an explosion sounded beneath the point where she was jumping, the shock wave driving her forward, right towards Ino. Hands forming seals, Ino smiled grimly.

"_Shintenshin: Saiko Araiso no Jutsu_!"

As she fell towards the Leaf Shinobi, Temari fell into her field and was frozen much like the kunai that Sakura had used were; she knew what was coming next.

"Release!"

The girl was slammed back like a pinball, crashing into the wall and make a sizeable indentation on it too, before collapsing to her knees just to watch Ino charge toward her again, kunai in hand. Ducking the swipe which was supposed to cleave her head from her shoulders, she rolled around the purple-clothed Genin making her way towards the fan she left behind.

Ino, yanked her kunai out from the wall when Temari had ducked, pivoting on a foot to find the Sand Shinobi, who was very close to her weapon.

Snarling, Ino threw the kunai, watching as Temari jumped out of the way and the kunai slammed into the fan, sending it skittering across the dirt floor. Drawing several more kunai, Ino began to give chase; throwing them one by one to hinder the other Kunoichi's run towards her favoured weapon. Sadly, her efforts were for naught when the fan was picked up and then swung. Ino and the last kunai she had thrown were propelled backwards, slamming into the wall hard by the head and the kunai flying and spearing her shoulder.

The panting Temari glared as the Examiner made his way towards Ino and analysed her condition, the girl in question, was knocked out cold.

"Yamanaka Ino is unable to continue! Winner: Sabaku no Temari!"

Naruto smiled admirably at the blonde girl who was carried away on a stretcher. While being defeated, she showed a delightfully tactical mind. The kind people could use as squad leaders. His thoughts on her becoming an ANBU were just further fortified on that trick she used, the one where the explosion forced Temari to fly forwards and be forced into the field of which she could use her family Bloodline. To Naruto's annoyance however, he had yet to see her use the body-switch technique. Either way, she performed well and chances are is that she would become Chuunin anyway. She only lost due to the fact the other Genin had 'bigger guns' so to speak.

"I am sorry once again, ladies and gentlemen; Uchiha Sasuke has still not arrived. However, we will head on to the next match, Sabaku no Kankuro vs. Nara Shikamaru!"

In the stands, the Hyuuga Prodigy snorted and leaned against the wall as he looked down at the arena while Shikamaru was glaring at the Sand Genin.

_You know, just once I wish they gave me a rest. First mom's telling me a better not lose and then my match was pushed closer due to the fact that Uchiha-san has yet to arrive. I think I was standing behind the door when the universe was handing out luck._

Slowly, the Nara Genius made his way down only to be interrupted by the Puppet User who had yet to move from his spot, "I am sorry, Examiner, I don't think I can win! I give up!"

That made Shikamaru have double take before cheering with a little dance.

_No, I think I was standing in the middle of the room and got given a lot of karma! Back luck then good luck then bad luck!_

"Right then, the second to last match, Sa-"

The Jounin Examiner blinked when flush of leaves circled the ground, two shadows within them. Slowly, it settled with Hatake and the Uchiha standing there, back to back.

Naruto was annoyed;

_A little bit melodramatic don't you think, Hatake?_

Genma raised an eyebrow, "You realize you're late."

Kakashi put a hand on the back of his head, rubbing nervously, "Umm, we're not disqualified are we?"

"No, I suppose not. Too many feudal lords want to see the Uchiha in action, but if it were up to me…"

"Well, then," Said Kakashi, visibly brightening, "When's his match?"

"Now, I suggest you get off the arena Kakashi." He watched as the Uchiha remained standing there stoically and the Hyuuga arrived by the staircase while Kakashi disappeared.

"Sorry for the delay, but as Uchiha Sasuke has arrived, his match will be now!

"Hyuuga Neji vs. Uchiha Sasuke!"

This was the moment where Naruto's day got interesting; the opening of the match had been when the Hyuuga began to speak about fate and how the Uchiha would lose. Of course this just made the Uchiha angry which caused both parties to begin to fight. Once Neji began the Divine Sixty-Four Strikes, Sasuke was already putting space between them. The resulting explosion that was heard at the Kage's section interrupted the fight and drew the attention of every Shinobi in the area, particularly the Mist Shinobi.

"Begin!"

The two Sand Shinobi standing behind the Kazekage moved, both dropping smoke bombs which clouded the area. That drew the attention of the Mizukage and as it was only a small truce between the Mist and the two allied Nations; he was prepared for any kind of treachery. Leaping up, he had his sword drawn, blinking in confusion when Raido, one of the Jounin bodyguards of the Hokage was pinned to a wall by four kunai. The three Jounins behind the Mizukage all drew their swords, blinking in confusion when the other Jounin protecting the Hokage was thrown towards them. Nukiuchi Raiden narrowed his eyes when he noted the Kazekage appear behind the Hokage, kunai in hand.

_-Flashback-_

_The seven Mist Shinobi sat in a large room as the Yondaime Mizukage stood before them. Six of the Shinobi were simply high level Jounins while Raiden was a member of the Seven Swordsmen. Slowly, the Mizukage stood up, calling for their attention._

"_Our own spies have found that there is an invasion scheduled against Konohagakure; this is already known by the Sandaime of Konoha. As such, we of the Mist are a poor country with high level Shinobi, due to the wealth of the Leaf, if an invasion occurs in the time we are within Konoha; it would do us well to support the Leaf against the invaders. Make sure you remember that."_

_-End Flashback-_

Raiden narrowed his eyes as he watched the Kazekage leapt up onto the roof, forcing the Hokage to go as well. His sword drawn, he gave chase, leaping up and out of the smoke and landing next to the two Kages.

-----------------------------------------------------------------

Heijia narrowed his eyes as he drew his sword; his sensei had briefed him on what was happening.

_Support the Leaf._

Next to him he noted the Sand Siblings leaping into the middle of the arena. The redhead, the youngest had irregular breathing, which was odd as he had yet to begin the fight. Hefting his sword, he ignored them for now, heading towards the direction of the smoke in the distance.

------------------------------------------------------------------

Naruto's eyes widened at the explosions that suddenly formed around the arena. The citizens were all panicking heading towards the bottom floor, leaving the audience stands empty except for Shinobi who were already fighting.

_Bloody hell, this is a freaking invasion!_

Being the only one on his side of the stands, he was targeted by a Sound Shinobi. He pulled back from the kunai swing, his arm lifting up to grip the Sound Shinobi's wrist, his other arm, bent at the elbow which he jammed into his face then used the hand of that same arm and grabbed the kunai from his hand, using it for a backhanded swipe across the throat. As the Shinobi in purple fell down, quite dead, Naruto grabbed the pouch at his back, tying it onto the sash he was already wearing. Currently he was already wearing his Shinobi uniform in everything except the bandages. He narrowed his eyes down at the stadium, blinking when he noticed one of the Mist Jounin get cut down when his sword slammed onto the Sand Sibling's Jounin Instructor and then in turn was torn apart. He watched the katana flipping through the air, landed tip first in the dirt floor.

Naruto leapt down, using chakra to keep from falling to his death, he ran down the wall, dodging shuriken and other projectiles thrown at him, his hands flowed through seals and the next instant six of himself jumped through the air and landed on the dirt floor. He sent all five Mizu Bunshins to stop the Sand Siblings from attacking him as Baki was already in combat with Genma. He noted that three of his Mizu Bunshins have been defeated before he grabbed the katana and leapt away again.

As he hefted it, he noted that it was well balanced, an all-rounded sword not focusing heavily on slashing/tearing damage like a Zanbatou, it would do for now. He glanced at the Sand Siblings absently noting the Mizukage arriving inside the arena, and to his shock, Gaara's arm formed into some colossal veined arm. He knew he wasn't needed here as the Mizukage was a Kage for a reason. He looked up, blinking when he saw an ANBU member cut down a Konoha Chuunin before leaping away.

_No you don't!_

Following the ANBU, he glared when he or she spun around in mid jump, throwing several small shuriken's at him which he deflected with the sword. It was well balanced, but still had a foreign feel to it due to the fact that Naruto was unused to wielding curved weapons.

As he followed the black cloaked Shinobi, he glanced at his surroundings, all around, there were Sand and Sound Shinobi battling the Leaf, and occasionally he glimpsed the swords of a Mist member. In the distance, he saw a three headed snake, wreaking havoc in the town square where several Nins using Katons were attempting to slow it down.

A large explosion sounded behind him, he blinked when a monstrously large and ugly raccoon appeared within the stadium. Naruto shook his head as he continued to give chase, that wasn't his problem, let the proper Shinobi deal with it.

The Invasion of Konoha had just begun.

--------------------------------------

_Author's big notes_

_Ahh, another chapter finished in the span to two days. I feel leet._

_Anyway, for those of you who think this story is going way too fast, it is. I'm trying to finish the Chuunin Exams arc so I can go and do the part where Naruto is a known Shinobi instead of a civilian. The next chapter is mainly gonna be based around the little differences like with one of the Seven fighting alongside the Hokage against Orochimaru._

_Oh, and thanks to Lord Myst for beta reading this._

_Oh one more thing, for thoser who are asking if its NarutoXIno, thats most likely. Though I might pick Temari as well but not both.  
_

_Anyway, REVIEW!_

_- Nuebus_


	5. Battle

Battle

_Hmph. As a Mizukage I never thought that I'd have to actually fight. Seems the information was correct, there was an invasion. Never thought it would be from the Sound and the **Sand** of all Hidden Villages. Heh. Traitors seem to be rather common in the Shinobi world, as both Missing-nin all the way to entire Villages._

He watched impassively as the twelve year old redhead brat roared and yelled, raising an eyebrow when his arm erupted into a heavily veined arm.

_Absolutely disgusting._

Still wearing the uniform of the Mizukage; he raised both his arms, straightening them and exposing his hands as the large sleeves fell back. In another smooth motion, he flipped a small scroll into the air, using his middle finger's nail to cut his thumb; he smeared the blood along the scroll as it opened. With a poof, an enormous blue Zanbatou appeared, slamming tip first into the dirt ground with a rumble. The sword was a full two feet longer then Zabuza's; blue metal was marked with a golden dragon circling around the flat of the blade until its head was parallel with the edge, its mouth opened in a roar. The hilt was wrapped in a dark red cloth, finally ending with another golden dragon with its mouth open at the butt. With a practised motion and ease, the Mizukage grabbed the sword with his right hand, tearing it out of the earth.

As he looked at the transforming boy before him, he smiled.

_It has been a long time since I've had a decent fight. Let's hope that whatever the hell you are will give me at least a challenge._

With his free hand, he grabbed the front of his robes, yanking them away to show armour, which was very similar to a samurai's. Its blue metallic gleam was the same as the Zanbatou's background; the breastplate was engraved with another golden dragon head whose body was coiled on and around the rest of the suit, its wing spread from the pauldrons to the upper arm guards, its clawed feet extending to his shin guards and with its tail ending at the plate at his back; he looked like a samurai noble. Even as a Mizukage however, he wore a Forehead-Protector which had a blue cloth, wrapped around where it was supposed to be; his forehead. The blue cloth it was connected to was tied in a knot at the back of his head, two stray straps hovering in the wind above the back of his kneecaps. His brown hair was tied in an aristocratic ponytail, with a few stray wisps escaping the band. He glared with green eyes as he noted several Jounin and Chuunin arriving to stand before him; supposedly attempting to delay him before the boy finishes his transformation. He snarled as they came, he didn't have time for this!

-

The Kazekage sneered at the presumptuous Jounin who had followed him and his trapped Hokage. He noted the Mist Forehead-Protector with yellowed eyes as well as glaring at the long blade in his hand, "You think to interfere with my ambition, swordsman? I assure you, you will not, and along with this old fool, you will die!"

The Shinobi in question raised his sword, pointing it at the disguised Kazekage for a moment before hefting it and having it lean on his shoulder, "Arrogance has always been a part of the upper Shinobi. It seems that it runs deeper, the more powerful you are. You are a prime example, Kazekage-sama. Corrupt as always; also as stupid. If you did not think the Mist knew about your pet project with your son; you are quite wrong. Yondaime-sama has been watching and waiting to see when your stupidity would get the best of you, it seems that it is now. Prepare to die."

The malicious Nin blinked at one of the members of the Seven Swordsmen before letting out a soft chuckle that slowly evolved into a full blown chuckle, heard over the background explosions around Konoha. He grinned maliciously, "Ahh, yes, you still believe me to be the Kazekage, do you not? You are an amusing specimen for a mortal, did you know that?"

Sarutobi, still held at kunai-point, eyes widened before flicking over to glare at the man from the corner of his eye, "You are not the Kazekage!"

"Very astute, Hokage-sama. Perhaps a few more clues would help as well? After all you must be getting senile in your old age; the elderly will always get an extra chance compared to us bright young people! Isn't that right, _Sarutobi-sensei_?" Snickered the impostor.

"You are…"

With a clean rip, the face covering of the Kazekage face-mask was ripped away, revealing the pale white face of the Snake Sannin, Orochimaru.

-

Naruto rolled in the air, tilting his legs away from the few shuriken thrown at him, he grinned internally, though his face remained impassive.

_Anyway able to infiltrate the ANBU must have some skill; and as it is not revealed where ANBU put their equipment, this one most likely killed to become the replacement. It seems Konoha has become rusty in its time of peace._

Slinging out a kunai with an explosive note attached, he noted with no small satisfaction when the roof that the enemy Shinobi was about to land on explode in a shower of dust, sending him tumbling through the air and forced to hit another roof in a roll before pivoting to face the source of his pain, Naruto.

"Come now, ANBU-san, you have to have better skills then that to successfully infiltrate the best of the best in Konoha! Please don't tell me that it was pure luck." Naruto's facial expression was one of utter boredom, drawling in an irritatingly flaccid voice, he smiled serenely at the masked man before him.

Without missing a beat, and without replying to the blonde's annoyance, the renegade ANBU whipped out three shuriken's and tossed them at Naruto before leaping at him, hands before himself, fingers splayed and slightly bent. Naruto easily swayed away from two of the shuriken's using his free hand to grab the last one and flipped it back in a half-hearted attempt to maim, still bearing the bored expression when the black-clad Shinobi slapped it away before reaching his shorter counter-part.

-

The Mizukage looked on with curiosity as the boy was lifted up by the enormous mound of sand, forming arms and legs of a Tanuki. Its blue veins running across each arm like a twisted perversion on an exoskeleton. He narrowed his eyes when the sleepless Genin actually forced himself to sleep, blinking in complete surprise when a squealing voice screamed its pleasure at being released.

_I waited for you long enough._

His arm reaching into his pouch in one in a practised motion; he deftly flicked a kunai between his forefinger and thumb, flinging it into the water pipe only partially hidden after the attack. Using the body of a Suna Jounin as a platform, he leapt at the one tailed Demon, absently cleaving off the arm which attempted to slap him aside. Bringing himself to the enormous monstrosity's eye-level, he placed his sword in between his teeth, flashing through seals as the stupidity of the thing before him revealed itself by screaming like seven year old girl who found her first cockroach.

"_Suiton: Suikodan no Jutsu!"_ (Water Element: Water Shark Missile Technique) 

The spray from the water pipe formed into a single shark, the water burst arcing around the Mizukage before speeding around and into the Tanuki's forehead, eliciting another scream of pain before an enormous block of sand reared back and hurled itself at the Shinobi. Blue eyes widened, "Oh shi-!"

Absently, the Kage wondered if that was an automated response or a manual reaction as he sailed through the air. Tilting his head back; he softly sighed as he slammed into the stadium's stands, resulting in him in a rather awkward and uncomfortable position as he slowly dragged himself out of the hole he had involuntarily made.

"I'll kill you, human! I'll kill you all!"

He sighed once again as he heard the shrill voice.

_The first time I get to kill a Jinchuriki and it screams and wails like a child. Pathetic and shameful. Best to end it sooner then later; don't wanna hear that screech for much longer._

He grinned when an enormous hand sped toward him, intending to slam and tear him apart, grabbing his sword by the hilt like a spear, he threw himself at the hand, and grin broadening as his more-then-a-little-special sword tore right through the arm. Once his blade had gotten him to about the elbow of the beast, who was yet again screaming shrilly; his gauntleted hand reached out, nabbed at the sand on either side of him before he pulled himself on top of the arm and flipping the sword into his mouth again. His hands started at seals while ignoring the Biju's other arm reaching towards him,

"_Hyouton: Tsubame Fubuki!" _(Ice Release: Swallow Snow Storm) 

Swinging his palm out, he watched as his frozen swallows carve into the demonic creature before jumping up, letting the arm that had been reaching for him slide past beneath. His sandaled feet landed on the veined limb again as he twisted his neck backwards, narrowing his eyes as the arm he had shredded slowly knitted itself together. He blinked when he felt himself begin to sink into the sand, cursing, he jumped away, heading for the stands again before this time actually being swatted down into the arena, by the Tanuki's foot. As his back slammed into the hard, dirt floor, he grunted and rolled aside as the foot came crashing down.

_Son of a bitch. Didn't think fighting a One-Tail would take this much effort. Yondaime Kazekage, at least you succeeded in making a rather powerful killing machine. Guess its time to stop playing._

He swung his sword again, ripping the hand that came for him apart before he dug his Zanbatou into the floor; his hands flowing through seals.

"Kuchiyose no Jutsu!"

-

Sarutobi sighed as he watched his one time student grinning openly before them, still bearing the Kazekage uniform, "It seems I was weak in my past for not stopping you back then, now, I pay the price."

Orochimaru laughed as his eyes flicked back to the old man from the swordsman, "_You_ will pay the price, Sarutobi-sensei? No, you will not pay the price. However, Konohagakure will!"

The Hokage's eyes widened as he looked out at the explosions around the city, just before a purple shield flared up before them. His face twisted in anger as he glared at the Sannin from the corner of his eyes, "You would destroy an entire village for your ambition, Orochimaru? You would annihilate the innocents all around you?"

Orochimaru's laughter only transformed into an insane cackle, holding his sides as he listened to the Third's response, "Innocents, Sarutobi-sensei? There are no innocents in this world! Only those with lesser and greater sins! The Leaf have stood in my way for too long, impeded me at the worst of times, interrupted my research and finally, tried to stop my ambition! You may be happy to die of old age, Sarutobi-sensei, but I will not! The city of Konoha will burn for standing against me all that time ago!"

Sarutobi smiled through gritted teeth, "Then you truly have learnt nothing while you were a Konoha Shinobi."

The Snake Sannin burst out laughing as he shoved the Fire Shadow away from himself and leapt a fair distance away, "Perhaps I have learnt and you have simply gone senile, old fool." He yanked off his Kage clothing and had a feral grin, "Enough talk. We do battle now!"

"Agreed." The Hokage likewise yanked his Kage clothing off, bearing a black bodysuit with a samurai helm.

Throughout the conversation, Nukiuchi Raiden had been listening and waiting. It was obvious that there was no love lost between the combatants; the only problem now was successfully aiding the Hokage without hindering him. From what knowledge Mist spies had garnered, Sarutobi was a jack-of-all-trades. He had no speciality and pretty much no weakness to direct at, as such this makes him unpredictable with his large arsenal of Jutsus, as he was known as The Professor of Shinobi at one point, the arsenal he owns would be pretty large.

He was proved right when both sides almost simultaneously muttered something under their breath after completing a series of seals. A black claw coalesced before the Snake Sannin before tearing out and slamming into the stone wall that had formed in front of the Hokage then dispersing.

Being trapped between two S-Class Shinobi was not on Raiden's list of things to do.

-

Naruto shifted the sword in his right hand as he gave a swipe at the ANBU with the kunai in his left. As expected, the Shinobi easily stepped out of Naruto's range, giving a counter-strike with his own bare hands as he did so. Naruto twisted his hand left then right, feeling the short breeze from the speed of the hands which he avoided. He bent himself backwards as the arm instead of flashing backwards for a defence on the black-clad Shinobi's part, pressed the assault, the arm swinging past the blonde's chin from his position, then in one smooth movement, bent back upright and swung the kunai, snarling when it missed. Using the katana then, Naruto allowed himself to spin from the force of the swing used by the kunai and continued spinning into a crouch where he swung the long blade. As expected from the other Shinobi, he dodged by making a short hop, landing on the katana as he did so, Naruto thrust forward with his kunai forcing the ANBU pretender to leap backwards and away from the two sharp objects in Naruto's hands.

Kabuto hissed as his sandals snapped the tiles of the roof while skidding backwards. The Shinobi in front of him proved to be an advanced Taijutsu Expert which made Kabuto's techniques a bit harder. While he would have a harder time hitting him with the Shosen Jutsu (Mystical Palm Technique), he would get more chances due to the fixation opponents like these had for close combat. His sandals grinded to a halt against the tiles, Kabuto looked up from behind his mask, noting the blonde ninja hadn't pressed his advantage, smiling at his luck, he yanked out a kunai, fully prepared to fight, he leapt forward at the same time the other did.

With the sound of grinding steel, the two Shinobi met in mid-air, Naruto's crisscrossed blades against the Yakushi's one blade held in two hands. Both Shinobi tried to harm each other with Kabuto pulling his left hand off the kunai to try score a hit with his medical jutsu and Naruto pulling his kunai away from the deadlock for a stab. Both failed and had to kick off from each other, and unfortunately for Naruto, he missed the roof and fell into an alleyway while Kabuto safely landed on the tiled roof once more. Kabuto quickly made his way towards the edge to glare down at the dark alleyway, almost caught by surprise at the sudden shout.

"_Suiton: Yarinohosaki no Jutsu!"_ (Water Element: Spearhead Technique)

True to its name, a large water spear came flying out of the dark alleyway, forcing Kabuto to jump diagonally up and backwards in a back-flip to avoid it, which also proved to be a mistake as Kabuto was halfway through the back-flip, practically upside-down when a single kunai flashed towards him, catching him by surprise. Twisting his neck to the side, he felt a collision with his mask before he hit the roof in a roll and jumping back to his feet, only to hear the sound of an explosive note going off and sending him sailing towards the next roof. Slamming into the tiles and causing several to flip out of place and onto the streets below, he felt himself sliding down and grabbed the edge to stop that from happening. He blinked when he got full vision on the right side of his face when half of the mask fell away. Snarling, he pulled himself onto the roof and glared at the smirking blonde on the other roof; he yanked off the other half of the mask, cursing as he did so before equipping himself with a kunai again. He mentally noted not to walk into any of the deceptive blue-eyed Shinobi's traps again.

Naruto smiled grimly as he watched the mask fall away, revealing half the face before the ANBU yanked off the other half when he got to his feet. Apparently it was the seven-time Genin failure, Yakushi Kabuto. That he had not been expecting. Shaking his head ruefully, he called out, "Yakushi Kabuto. One of Konohagakure's less promising Genin? Now why are you all the way out here, traitor to your own village?"

Kabuto grinned now, he could stall the blonde as he healed the damage done by the explosive note and ready the Jutsu he was preparing. Even now he could feel the bruises in his back and chest fading fast away, "I never was one of the Leaf's loyal Shinobi, stranger. Though I do not see any emblem your body, what village exactly are you from to be able to perform these techniques at such a young age?"

Naruto tilted his head to the side, "None of your business, Yakushi-san, as I'm about to kill you anyway, the knowledge will be wasted."

Kabuto threw his head back and let out a harsh laugh, "Bold one, I see. Do tell me your name so that when I kill you, I can look up your medical records to use your corpse as one of my many undead fighters!"

"Feh. I don't see no undead, though if you really want to know, it's Uzumaki Naruto. Now, let's keep fighting shall we? I want this to be over so I can kill a few of your brethren."

"Then prepare to die, _Shikon no Jutsu_!" (Dead Soul Technique)

Naruto blinked in surprise when Kabuto didn't even move when a Leaf Shinobi suddenly appeared, his kunai already in hand and making a swing at the blonde's head. Ducking, Naruto easily slammed his katana through the Leaf Chuunin, cutting the Shinobi cleanly in half before his eyes widened. The Shinobi was dead before he cut him down. At this realisation, Naruto looked up to see Kabuto already coming down and into striking distance. He grunted when the newly revealed Nukenin slammed his palm against his forearm as he tried to block with one hand while the other was fended off by Naruto kunai. Naruto blinked when the arm touched basically collapsed, the katana rolling out of nerveless fingers and the arm swinging at his side. Considering how close the two Shinobi were right now, Naruto had one thing to say.

"Fuck."

-

"Kuchiyose no Jutsu!"

The Shinobi in question was engulfed in a comically huge puff of smoke which pretty much covered half the stadium. The Tanuki stared when the stadium's side collapsed after the human had formed the last seal and slammed his hand down, snarling and swearing profusely, he leapt forward, using the freshly healed arm as a bludgeon, he swung it again into the smoke. To the surprise of someone on the watching Shinobi, the One-Tail stumbled backwards, its arm torn off completely at the elbow as massive claw reached out of the smoke and then retreated back in.

**"Ahh, Takumi-san, why do you bring me to such a troublesome place? I was having the greatest dream just now involving a squid and a pearl…"**

The smoke cleared to reveal the Mizukage standing atop a colossal crab, with its claws still snap back and forth before it.

"Heh, be quiet, baka, you can sleep and dream any time you want, but not right now as I need you to fight!"

** "Fight…? Ahh, a demon manifestation… You never said that I would have to fight demonic creatures before…"**

"Bah! Stop whining Nakashima-teme, I haven't called you out in the last couple of years and considering how you've acted before in your past against Gamabunta, you'll enjoy this."

"**If you say so, Takumi-san…"**

Said giant crab suddenly righted itself on its six legs, the sun glinting on its naval blue shell, the beady black eyes seemed to have a malicious glare within it before it suddenly, contrary to normal crabs, charged directly forward, its claws reached out before it. A distinct 'snap' sounded through the remains of the stadium as the Tanuki leapt up and out, landing on the roof of a building and crushing it while sending two other Shinobi upon it flying before having to repeat the action in another direction as the crab was not allowing any quarter.

Finally, the Tanuki successfully dodged the crab's claws by going around it and also gave himself a break for the needed time to perform the technique.

"_Futon: Renkudan!"_ (Wind Element: Drilling Air Bullet!) Slamming the palm of his hand into his own stomach, a globe of what looked to be superheated air came blasting towards the crab. Summoner in question formed a few familiar seals before shouting out, "_Suiton: Suikodan no Jutsu!"_

The two projectiles slammed into each other, the water shark dispersing in a splatter by the force of the globe of air which continued its course, this had slowed it down enough that the crab and Mizukage could move aside and dodge it. Takumi panted as he realised that they were far away from the stadium's water source, he hissed when he noticed nothing to help before turning to voice his thoughts to the crab. Nakashima, the master summon of crabs suddenly slammed its claws into the earth, enough to see the water running below Konohagakure. With a smile, the Mizukage noted another air missile coming towards them. He formed a few more seals,

"Suiton: Daibakufu no Jutsu!" (Water Element: Great Waterfall Technique)

A single stream of water warped and wrapped itself around the Mizukage's frame; forming a small sphere to surround the human when an enormous explosion of water erupted out from the source below, heading up to Takumi's level and then arched towards the air bullet. Said collision resulted in the air bullet being wiped out and the enormous torrent of water slamming into the Tanuki. Painful to say the least, demon or not.

The summon and Summoner watched closely as the mist that had formed form the attack dispersed. There was the demon, the left side of its upper body missing completely. It remained standing however and for some strange reason, was not stitching itself back together. The Mizukage noted the demonic creature's pained pants before his eyes were caught by a gleam caused by the reflection of skin being wet. There, atop and in the middle of the demon's forehead was Gaara, the Kazekage's son, hanging limply. The Mizukage narrowed his eyes and turned to confer with the enormous crab he stood atop. Before he could speak, the summon interrupted,  
**"Yes. I see the human boy. It seems the information regarding Shukaku is sketchy at best, however, the weak seal holding it seems to influence the boy's sleeping patterns. The information regarding the fact that the boy never slept probably stemmed from the fact that he cannot due to the demon taking over. So, logically, all we need to do is give the boy one good whack and he'd be up and running with the Shukaku trapped. Kawazoe Takumi, it seems you'll be fighting in close and personal yet, just make sure you don't kill him, considering how weak the seal is and his current condition, I wouldn't be surprised if that released the demon completely."**

Nodding, the Mizukage yanked out his sword from its place jammed in the crab's shell.

-

Raiden and the Hokage both jumped away as an enormous burst of wound thundered past, tearing all the tiles in its path apart. Hitting the roof in a roll, Raiden placed the sword at his back again, his hands flowing through practised seals, he muttered under his breath,

"_Futon: Enmu Karite no Jutsu!"_ (Wind Element: Great Haze Reaper)

With a swing of his sword at the general direction of the Snake Sannin, he was already moving away, noting the stone wall that appeared and be ripped apart by the Wind technique. He hoped he at least scratched the mentally unstable Shinobi. He turned to the side and noticed the Third have a long stream of fire erupt from his mouth, following a shadow which flitted away immediately. Following the shadow with his sword in both hands, Raiden immediately realised his mistake when the rapidly moving Sannin suddenly reversed the direction he was moving and slammed into the swordsmen at mid-flight. Raiden got a good luck at what he was doing, to his complete horror, the Sannin was crouched on the flat of his sword as the pair fell back and as they continued falling, Orochimaru stamped a blast note on the sword before leaping away. The Mist-nin had just enough time to face the flat away from himself when he was blown backwards even faster, slamming into the roof and right through the ceiling below it. With a groan, he staggered to his feet, using the sword as a walking stick for the moment.

The Hokage cursed vehemently as his ally was blasted through the roof by that inhuman speed that his former student had. He ducked a pair of shuriken which were flung overhead before using the back of his hand to slap the third one away. Orochimaru landed in the middle of the roof, smiling indulgently at the Sandaime.

"And there goes your ally, Sarutobi-sensei; I wonder how will he had did against the little present I gave him?"

"Well enough." Came a voice as the Mist Shinobi, pulled himself up from the wreckage of the hole, gasping slightly as he felt the bruise forming on his chest. He readied his sword in a tight grip and took his stance.

"Ahh, so you Mist Nin are quite resilient, are you not? I didn't expect you to survive at such close proximity to an explosive tag."

"Yeah, we're tough as nails and you gotta make sure that we're quite dead before we stop fighting."

"Something I would be glad to do, but first, I have a present for you Sandaime. You will enjoy this, I think." Orochimaru smiled malevolently as he suddenly went through seals, his palms practically glowing with chakra, he made a pause as he watched at how tense the two Shinobi before him was, they were so amusing. He slammed his hands down, smiling as he did so all the way. _Oh yes, Sarutobi-sensei, you will enjoy this very much, I think._

"_Kuchiyose: Edo Tensei!"_ (Summoning: Impure World Resurrection)

Both Raiden and the Third readied themselves when a small vortex opened up at Orochimaru's feet. A single coffin slowly raised itself up, and then was followed by another. A third coffin appeared getting halfway out of the vortex before collapsing in on itself and being flung back in. The Snake Sannin had an expression of confusion when the third coffin refused to rise up, he then shrugged at that and faced the Shinobi he was fighting. Both of the coffins simultaneously opened, purple gas or smoke sifted out, letting out a distinct 'hiss' as it did. Sarutobi's eyes widened in shock, "The First and Second Hokages…"

Raiden simply rubbed a hand over his face before readying his blade.

Sarutobi took two unsteady steps forward, a hand raised up as if to touch the undead Shinobi at the distance they were at.

The First Hokage slowly opened his eyes and stared at the Third, "You are looking old, Sarutobi." The Second opened his eyes as well, "We wish it was on better terms that we are meeting, old friend."

"You don't have to do this, sensei, you don't have to follow –"

The First raised a hand, "Even you should know that Orochimaru wouldn't trust us enough to resurrect without holding something over our heads."

Sarutobi snarled, the first time his demeanour as one of rage, he pointed an accusing finger at his former student, "You would defile the dead, Orochimaru? You would force the dead to do your bidding for your ambition? If I had known how you would turn out, I would have never trained you!"

"A bit late for that, Sarutobi. But, enough talk, it is time for you and your friend to die."

With that, the Second Hokage formed a few seals;

"_Suiton: Suishoha!"_ (Water Release: Water Shockwave)

The roof was suddenly awash with water as it poured down and began to fill up at the purple shield's edge. The First also formed seals, his hands going through the seals that Sarutobi had not seen in dozens of years,

"_Mokuton!"_ (Wood Release)

While water sloshed around up to the knees of the combatants, the undead Hokage was suddenly lifted up by a tree branch which had burst into existence from the tree forming behind the Sannin. From that height, he could see everything that happened and use his ability at its best.

The single Mist Shinobi grinned as he felt the water around his legs. _This was his element_.

Immediately after the water was summoned, he had been forming seals which eventually resulted in causing a rather large tidal wave rushing forwards, forcing the idle Sannin and Second Hokage to leap out of the way.

Said Hokage looked on impassively, "It seems I may have made a mistake in forcing the battle field to adapt to my abilities. There is another Water Element specialist."

The First up at his plateau replied in monotone, "Never mind. What's done is done, we cannot change that. We shall make the best of it."

The battle had truly begun.

-

Naruto choked as he stumbled backwards, feeling the effects of multiple chakra scalpels in action. Kabuto on the other hand, was still swinging his arms, smiling maliciously as he forced the blonde back further and further with only the occasional hit being blocked by the one remaining functional arm. He had advanced until Naruto's feet were at the edge of the roof, and the blonde Shinobi was in very bad condition. His right arm was left useless, he couldn't turn his head to the left, his stomach felt like it was cramping up and one of his lungs were practically paralyzed, the only good point is that he had most of the use in his legs and left arm, everywhere else though, hurt like a bitch.

Kabuto straightened up as he watched the panting Shinobi before him, "Not so cocky now are you, blondie?" he hissed cruelly.

Naruto looked at him from under the blonde locks that were swaying rhythmically between each pant, "Seems –" he was interrupted by a hacking cough for a while before continuing, "Seems that I had underestimated you, Kabuto-san."

Kabuto grinned widely, "Yes, it does, doesn't it? I mean, there you were acting all high and mighty and now here you are, bruised and beaten. I must say that it was a pleasure to fight you, but really, it wasn't. However, it will be a pleasure to kill you!" Kabuto attacked once more, pulling a kunai from his pouch smoothly, he stabbed forward, at the exact same time, a monstrosity slammed into the roof they were standing on, sending both Shinobi sailing through the air, throwing Naruto through a building's window and Kabuto face first into the neighbouring building's brick wall.

The former Mist Nin rolled across the floor after slamming into the large desk at the centre of the room, sending papers scattering all over the place. He coughed violently, spittles of blonde splattering the polished floor as he pushed himself up. Staggering to his feet, he used a seat as a lever to drag himself up on before collapsing into it. His head rolling to the side, blood slowly seeped out of his open mouth and onto the rather prestigious chair. After several minutes lying there in exhaustion and pain, ignoring the explosions in the background, he tried to move, noting the fingers in his right hand twitch.

_It seems whatever the former Leaf Genin did to me only lasts for a short period of time. No wonder he was so desperate to land all the hits needed._

He slowly opened his eyes again, noting the surroundings. The room was circular or perhaps more oval then circular. Two the extremities of the more 'pointed' end of the oval were two pot plants, in the middle of the room was the desk he had bumped into. A large wooden and extremely polished one, behind it were a pair of guest or interview chairs as Naruto himself was sitting at where the actual person was supposed to be sitting. He let one eye trail across the floor, reading the scattered pieces of paper. All traces of his wooziness disappeared when his eye was caught by one in particular, the sheet was originally a scroll, glue holding it together, but Naruto slamming into it most likely broke the seal, resulting in it flip flopping across the room and landing open for the world to see. On the top, it read in bold letters, 'Uzumaki Naruto'. He stared for a moment before reaching out, wincing at the pain in his shoulder and picked it up. He had just begun to read it when an explosion sounded particularly close to his position, which broke him out of his reverie. Quickly rolling up the report, he used the stamp which lay on the floor and forced the scroll to be bound again. Stuffing it into his stolen pouch, he turned to look out the window, blinking at how damaged Konoha currently was. The place was swarming with fighting Shinobi, fire balls could be made out almost everywhere and there was even the stray water technique seen. In the distance, he could make out, just above the stadium, a purple box surrounding the roof of one of the audience stands. He flexed the muscles in the right side of his body, wincing in the pain before preparing to leap out the shattered window. Only to be blown back in by an enormous stream of water going past. Shaking his head to clear the double vision from his eyes, he barely registered the shrill shriek that filled the Hidden Village. He dragged himself to the window again.

The river of water was still spearing across his vision, slowly; he leaned out the window to find its target. An enormous raccoon was screaming in agony as the water pounded into its 'flesh' shoving it backwards continually, its weight leaving a path of destruction among Konoha's buildings. Naruto twisted his head to look at the source and stared in shock as a figure on a colossal crab was standing in the traditional form of seal using. He looked down at its feet, noting the enormous amount of water coming from a hole there.

_Konoha must have been built on top of an underwater river or lake. Interesting._

He pulled out a cloth from his utilities pouch and wrapped it around his face as he most likely would need to flee after the fight; he adjusted it so it remained tight around his face. Nodding, he launched himself out the window, gritting his teeth and the pains burning in the right part of his body. He looked around, hoping to find Kabuto as he had a bone to pick with the deceptive Genin. He almost gave up when his attention was caught by the distortions of a wind blade cutting towards him. He ducked, noting it slam into the roof he was standing on and cleave half of it off, tiles sliding off like a waterfall. He looked up; noting a Mist Shinobi and his enormous sword fighting the ANBU clad Kabuto. He grinned and leapt up towards them.

-

Narrowing his eyes, Takumi hefted his oversized blade in both hands, smiling grimly as his summon charged forward erratically; it easily sidestepped those air missiles which the Tanuki continuously sent as he charged. When he was within leaping distance, he did so, drawing his sword back for a backhanded blow as he arrived close and closer to the sleeping child. To his shock however, the wind was driven out of him when a rather large hand actually backhanded him, making him fly straight over the walls of Konoha and landing in a heap in the forest. The summon fared much worse as the Tanuki pounded away at it in close quarters before picking it up by one of the crab claws and throwing it over the walls like its master. The arm that had not repaired itself before was now back, completely whole.

Nakashima made a crab's version of a sigh, sounding a bit like a gurgle to human ears as it landed on its back. Being forced to rock back and forth to roll back onto its clawed feet; it never got the chance however. As it tried to, the Sand Demon came hurtling down, Nakashima only stared in shock as it was about to land its overweight body on his underbelly. In a poof, before it happened, he disappeared in a large cloud of smoke.

**"Sorry."**

Kawazoe Takumi staggered to his feet, sword in hand, just in time to see his summon explode in smoke. Cursing vehemently at his bad luck to go up against such a creature, he glared.

_Now that Nakashima's gone, I can't summon him as the laws do not allow it, similar to how carrier birds will not act on a full moon. I didn't even get to use the combo on the overgrown raccoon before it dispelled him so now I'm stuck here fighting the damn thing alone. Not good. Let's see the pros; the underwater lake underneath Konoha seems to feed into the river I hear close by, that gives me a source to use water techniques and maybe even win against this thing. Cons; I'm down to about two thirds of chakra and as the bit I've used has so far had almost no lasting effect on the damn thing, I'll have to conserve it and make sure I only make calculated attacks which cause as much damage as possible. Should have just cut the kid down when he was transforming._

He sighed as he readied himself. Sword in hand, he leapt towards the river, making sure to throw kunai with explosive notes attached at the bijou. Spinning aside in mid air from its responding strike, he landed next to the stream, his hands already forming seals.

"_Kirigakure no Jutsu!"_ (Hidden Mist technique)

The Tanuki cursed as its view of the human who was causing it so much pain was obscured by the enormous amount of Mist which fanned out around him. He squealed in rage as he felt a sharp piercing pain around its right fore finger. It looked at it, blinking at the stump before letting out a loud enraged scream.

**"I'll kill you human!"**

-

Orochimaru smiled amiably as he watched the rather entertaining fight between the two truly living Shinobi and the undead Shinobi. As of now, the living Shinobi were winning, due to the fact on how restricted the undead souls were after being brought back to life. They were moving slowly and sluggishly compared to the Mist Swordsman and the current Hokage. However, they held their own due to their regenerative abilities in a dead body. The Mist Shinobi had already loosed off several volleys of Suiton techniques, each one being countered by the Nidaime while the Shodaime countered the Sandaime.

He blinked in shock now as the member of the Seven Swords launched himself at the Shodaime, forcing him to fight in close quarters. The result being that the Second Hokage was caught in a curious technique known as _Suiro no Jutsu_ (Water Prison Technique) which had the undead fellow trapped in a sphere of water which was then maintained by a Mizu Bunshin when Nukiuchi used Kawarami. Suddenly Orochimaru grinned as he realised how good the Mist Nin actually was as he used his real body to sing his sword into the prison, cleaving the Second Hokage in two from the right shoulder to the left hip. The Nidaime scattered into dust within the Water Prison before being released by the Water clone.

_Of course, the Nidaime was perhaps at only about half of his real power so that is not an accurate estimation of Nukiuchi's abilities but still, very impressive to be able to maintain such a technique with a clone and then finishing the opponent off. It is time for me to join the battle, I think._

The Snake Sannin proved to be right as the recently resurrected First Hokage was slowly being overpowered by the elderly Kage. He sped forward, flickering from one location to in front of the Shodaime, completing a series of seals within a few seconds, he grinned,

"_Doton: Doroku Gaeshi!"_ (Earth Release: Earth Shore Return)

A slab of earth flipped itself up, interrupting the enormous fireball that flew their way. Orochimaru dispersed it before making a dual technique where he had the Shodaime practically sue him as a sling, firing himself at extreme speeds at the Sandaime.

Sarutobi grunted, his hands flowing through seals already as Orochimaru sped towards him before blinking as another figure interrupted his view of the human projectile.

The Snake Sannin snarled as he used the _Kusanagi no Tsurugi: Ku no Tachi _(Kusanagi Sword: Long Sword of the Heavens), before roaring in fury as he was deflecting by another sword, the one held by the Mist Jounin. He retracted the sword back into his throat as he glared at the two Shinobi who stood before him. Surveying the two, he suddenly broke into a grin, "Impressive Raiden-san. Tell me, why exactly are you helping my old master? Surely you have better motives then out of the goodness of your heart."

Sarutobi stopped as well, as he was curious too.

Raiden grunted without answering as he shifted his stance, holding his straight blade in both hands while planting his feet firmly on the ground.

"Ahh, I see. Following the instructions of the Mizukage are you? Well, whatever he is offering for your stay in services, I would say that I could pay better."

Raiden let out a harsh bark of laughter, "Sure you could."

"Oh? And what would I need to, ahh… _Bribe_ you to join my forces?"

"By dying of course."

Abruptly after such a short conversation, Orochimaru and Sarutobi were surprised when he leapt at the Sannin, his body revolving at high speeds with sword held in front of him, reminding the Sandaime of the Gatsuuga technique of the Inuzuka's. The Sannin leapt aside, hissing in anger as he felt the Mist Nin rush past. To his shock however, the Shinobi instead of coming back towards him, charged towards the Shodaime, who, without Orochimaru's already set command to defend himself, was torn apart and then scattered into dust. The swordsmen spun to a stop as he landed gingerly on the tree's branch.

"Well, now it looks like I fixed the odds of the fight."

He smiled amiably. Orochimaru could only snarl in potent rage.

-

Heijia swore as he backed off from the spy before him, his left arm was swinging uselessly at his side, his right, gripping the large sword, he watched the ANBU infiltrator closely. He'd just killed a Sand Chuunin when he had been attacked by a swarm of kunai, that in itself was irritating, but when he was attacked by the Shinobi who was responsible in close combat, that was just plain insulting. He'd easily avoided the swings of the Shinobi before planting his foot firmly into his assailant's gut, sending him hurtling backwards onto the flat roof's water tank, apparently the Shinobi had been trying to get past him and thought that the Mist Nin wouldn't be much of a challenge. Of course, angered by the assault on his person, Heijia had pursued who he now recognised as a Genin from the Chuunin exam. The fact that he was wearing a Sound Forehead-Protector took away his qualms for attacking a Leaf Nin. As they fought however, for several moments they had been in a stalemate, with repeats of swing, dodge and swing. That was until now when he managed to scrape his blade over the Sound Shinobi's shoulder and Kabuto in turn had numbed his left arm with those swipes of his.

Narrowing his eyes, he recognised the feeling in his arm as a medical Jutsu technique, but not being a Medic-Nin, he had no idea how to counter its effects. Cursing vibrantly, he had been rather surprised when a black blur slammed into Yakushi, sending both the tackler and his victim rolling over the floor, within moments, both Shinobi were already on their feet, ready to fight, Kabuto and Naruto both wielding a kunai now.

Kabuto sneered, "Bah. I had thought that being thrown like that; you could have at least died."

Naruto grinned back, "I don't die that easy, Kabuto-san. I've gotta repay you for screwing my body parts over like you had. It's unpleasant at best."

"Well, I'll finish the job I started then." The sneering Shinobi suddenly sifted forward, intent on rending the blonde limb from limb. Said blonde leapt upwards, watching Kabuto hurtle past beneath him, he set off the explosive tag he had left on the water tank when he tackled said Shinobi. Grinning in triumph, Naruto's hands easily moved through over a dozen seals,

"_Suiton: Suiryuudan no Jutsu!"_ (Water Element: Water Dragon Blast Technique)

The water from the tank instantly morphed into an enormous dragon, its yellow eyes glinting, it sped towards Kabuto, blasting through the roof as it came down where Naruto was standing. From the corner of his eye, he saw Kabuto at the roof's edge and smiled as he directed the dragon to come up from beneath him. The dragon rammed its nose straight up, through the ceiling and instantly slammed into the Sound Nin in its teeth. Kabuto screamed in pain as he was dragged through several buildings by the dragon which eventually over extended itself and collapsed, dropping him onto the middle of the streets of Konoha, amongst the dead Sand, Sound and leaf Shinobi.

Heijia slowly walked towards the grinning blonde who was staring down at the remains of Kabuto with a satisfied expression. He stopped next to him and planted his sword into the ground, leaning against it with his good arm, "So…"

Naruto's grin melted away, replaced with a grimace, "Yeah…" "How do you know of that technique you just used?"

"My secrets are my own."

"Heh. I have a right to be curious, after all, Mist Shinobi should protect what techniques they have."

"From wha – What the hell?"

Abareru's eyes followed Naruto's gaze, resting on Kabuto once again. Instead of a dead body, what they saw was a living, breathing, and perfectly fine Shinobi. Kabuto was smiling maliciously up at them, a single trail of blood flowing down from the side of his mouth.

He glared up at them, his Sound Forehead-Protector glinting in the sun as he smiled.

_These two brats did a number on me. First one bruised me a little until I took him out and then the second one stalled me from leaving and the first one catches me in a Mist ANBU B-Class technique. Seems these two aren't what they seem. I'm damn lucky for my recovery rate and abilities or else I'd probably have bled to death, I should not underestimate these two gaki. Its time to truly fight._ Taking two steps forward, he simply _blurred_.

He appearing in front of the two younger Shinobi, he brought his foot around in a round-house kick, with Naruto barely managing to cross his arms in time before being sent flying backwards, Kabuto continued the spin of the kick until he had spun to face the Mist nin, bringing his leg down in an axe kick, which was successfully blocked by the flat of Heijia's blade but which still sent him skidding backwards. Kabuto landed on the edge of the roof, a kunai in each hand as he rammed his shoulder into the recuperating Mist Shinobi, he also brought his other arm up into a thrust with the kunai. Spinning away, Heijia leapt backwards blocking the kunai that was thrown his way; he made a back-flip to stop his movement. He was shocked when he saw the Sound-nin drawing his fist back, ready and cocked before catching him in the stomach, sending him flying the way he had came with blood erupting from his mouth. Hitting the floor in a roll, he brought his arm back, swinging the great sword which dispelled the Bunshin that Kabuto had placed there. Staggering to his feet, he noted the relatively unknown Shinobi stand up next to him.

Naruto wiped the blood that was dribbling down his jaw away. He narrowed his eyes at what he now acknowledged as Jounin-level Shinobi that he and his ally were facing. He flipped a kunai into his hand having lost the original when he was kicked, holding it in the standard reverse position; he racked his mind for techniques and ways to handle him without a sword.

Kabuto moved again, this time speeding towards Naruto, who rolled aside, bringing his kunai in a slash at the same time, the sound of metal upon metal sounded in the air as they clashed momentarily. Naruto rolled back upright, his hands forming a single seal, resulting in the existence of nine Mizu Bunshins who all held their kunai identically. Naruto himself and seven of his clones threw themselves at the Sound Jounin who noted the two other Bunshins speeding away from the battle area. Dodging three of the consecutive strikes, within a second, four of the clones splattered into the ground in puddles of water. He noticed one of the Naruto's leap up in the middle of the air, throwing three kunai at him. He easily dodged to the left, allowing them to pass over and dispel one of the Bunshins before making a negligent backhanded swipe, leaving only one Naruto in close combat left standing, he blurred again. Appearing before Naruto, he repeated the roundhouse kick earlier, this time in the middle of the air, he sent Naruto sailing off the roof and slamming into one of the civilian homes. He loosed off a shuriken at the last clone before turning to face Heijia.

Naruto grunted as he slammed through the ceiling, tearing through the wood. He groaned as for the second time today he had been blown into a building; slowly he pushed himself up again, noting his surroundings. He smiled at his familiar bedroom.

_Plan success._

He recalled the two Mizu Bunshins which he had sent in the opposite direction as a decoy, one he dispelled and the other he sent back to the battleground between Heijia and Kabuto while feeding it chakra to reinforce it through their link. He stood up wobbly, taking a moment to catch his breath before pushing up the mattress. He tossed the Sound utilities pouch out the window as he tied his on, and deftly, he wrapped the gauze around where he normally had them and then attached the sword to the back of his sash again, letting it hag diagonally. He noted that his Mizu Bunshin had already taken a few hits so was low on chakra, feeding it a little more, Naruto barrelled out back into the fight, fully prepared this time.

He interrupted the current battle between the two Shinobi with a kunai and explosive tag, which while may account for friendly fire; he knew that Heijia was barely holding his own so technically, he saved him from having body parts painfully disabled. Landing in the middle of the small crater his tag had created, he leapt forward to Kabuto who was slowly standing up. Heijia flashed a dark look at him from behind before he went through a few seals, using the same water Senbon technique he had used on Tenten's projectile weapons. While they weren't trained together, they both had known about teamwork, and as harmless the technique was, it was still worth dodging as shown by Kabuto who leapt into the air. Nodding, he pulled out three kunai, sending them towards the airborne Shinobi who deflected them with ease before noticing the long sword in Naruto's hand arcing towards him. Using his kunai to block, he was sent hurtling backwards as due to the fact that Naruto had struck him from an angle, he hurtled back down, leaving a dent next to the hole in the water tank.

Smiling in triumph, Naruto landed onto the water stained roof before gasping in pain. Falling to his knees, he coughed violently, spittles of blood nettling the floor with droplets of blood. The pain from Kabuto's earlier attack when he had been fighting him alone came back, flaring up at his chest. He looked at his hand which was shaking violently.

Kabuto slowly pulled himself out of the tank, landing on his feet lightly, as he watched the relatively unknown Shinobi coughing in pain, "Hurts doesn't it?" Slowly he stepped forward as he watched the blonde slowly curl into a fettle position, holding in screams of pain. He settled for watching him as he ignored the tensing Mist Nin, "Quite painfully to say the least don't you think? I'm assuming you want to know why as well… Well, I'll tell you. This technique is known as the chakra scalpel, where I use my bare hands to cut your chakra coils, achieving a similar effect to the Hyuuga Jyuuken. Unlike them however, the disabling only lasts for a short time before the victim is free to use his limbs properly once more. What it does that the Jyuuken doesn't do is leave lasting damage. Your chakra coils will always heal themselves over time, provided you don't lose the limb, however, the chakra scalpel, if not used properly, will force it to align itself slightly wrong. The condition you are currently suffering is chakra exhaustion, the way that your chakra coils had been aligned wrong had made you have to 'force' your chakra through to perform techniques. Now stray chakra will slowly gather at the points before, like a dam, explodes out. The first spear of pain you felt was each tenketsu being overloaded with chakra, the second you felt, was the chakra loosing into the body. If you have seen Hatake Kakashi's _Chidori_ technique, you will understand why it is so painful."

Smiling indulgently, he slowly turned towards the sole remaining threat. The Mist nin. But from what he damage he had managed at this speed, he shouldn't be much of a threat for any longer. Kunai out, Kabuto leapt at the Genin, surprised when he easily slipped out of the way. He felt an elbow crack against his face and stumbled backwards, barely avoiding the swing of the great sword. He winced at the pain at his cheek at he looked through, now cracked glasses at the Mist Shinobi. He blinked at the shocked look on the Mist Nin's face, but something was off. He narrowed his eyes on the other set of purple eyes. Purple? Kabuto stared for a moment at those eyes before letting out harsh laughter, "Mist Nin, single Jounin Instructor all to himself. I knew something was off. It seems that like Kimmimaro-sama, you also survived the Gekkei Kenkai slaughter within the Bloody Mist. I knew I heard the name, Abareru from somewhere."

Heijia grunted as he got used to the warp sight before him. Slowly, he waved his hand in front of his face, noting how slowly it moved as he listened. Even the voice of Kabuto was deformed, as if it was in slow motion, warping it.

"The Abareru Clan, one of five Advanced Bloodlines within Kirigakure, one of which are extinct, one owned by my master and the last of the third one standing before me. The Abareru Clan were the proud owners of the _Panjiiiro_, or the _Deep Violet_ eyes. Today it seems to be my lucky day to be able to wipe out the last of an extinct clan."

Grinning, he moved forward to attack only to be interrupted by a voice, "Kabuto-teme, arsehole get out of here!"

Both Shinobi looked up at a girl standing on the edge of the roof, Kabuto snarled, "Why?"

"The Invasion has been called off, dipshit! Orochimaru-sama has sounded the retreat!"

"Orochimaru…?" Kabuto cursed violently, his baleful eyes glaring at the unconscious blonde and purple eyed Genin before speaking, "We'll finish this later, Mist Nin." With that, he and the girl disappeared.

-

Raiden was in the air, already airborne and sailing backwards after a direct clash with the _Kusanagi_, he was staring at the purple roof of the defensive jutsu that the Sound Shinobi had used. He suddenly blinked as he saw the Snake Sannin appear before him, the blue sword no longer protruding from his mouth, Raiden sighed as he saw the axe kick coming. With the distinct sound of an echo, the Sannin's foot slammed into the Mist Nin, sending him hurtling down and into the ground, the wind rushing into the previously occupied space with a shriek. A muffled boom soon followed as the swordsman collided with the ceiling, dust covering the arena. As it cleared, Raiden remained lying in the hole that he had inadvertently created, tiles lying in disarray around him. He didn't get up.

Sarutobi grunted as he turned to face his once prize pupil.

_The Mist Shinobi is down for the count, most likely unconscious though, as he doesn't seem to be the kind who dies too easily. He helped some by evening the battle field for me as now, instead of facing the resurrected Hokages, though they were at half their original power, I have only got Orochimaru to handle. How far you have fallen, Orochimaru…_

Said Sannin landed lightly on one knee at the opposite side of the rooftop, his body language practically screaming confidence, he spoke, "It seems your ally has now been taken care of, Sarutobi. What shall you do now?"

"Defend Konoha."

Orochimaru doubled over laughing, clutching his stomach as a tear seeped out of his eye, "With what, old man? You can see out of this forest! Your village is _burning_; your people are dying, men, woman and even children! Your Shinobi cannot possibly hold against two different forces and as such, Konohagakure will fall!"

Sarutobi grimaced slightly before letting out a small grin, teeth exposed as a single trail of blood slid down from the corner of his mouth, "As such, you have learned nothing, Orochimaru!" With that, he formed several seals, "Kuchiyose no Jutsu!", Enma, the Master Summon of Apes appeared with an explosion of smoke.

"Sarutobi, summoned me again to fight have you?"

Sarutobi grinned, "It has been a while hasn't it? But now, we will do what you said I should have done all that time ago. Kill Orochimaru."

"It's about time, Sarutobi, you were too soft. Let's begin. _Henge: Kongonyoi! _(Transformation: Adamantine Staff)_"_

Spinning into the air, he morphed into the pole arm, landing neatly in the Professor's hands who took his combat stance, end of the staff pointing at Orochimaru. Orochimaru's laughter, which had died down after Enma's summoning, repeated itself.

Frowning in consternation, Sarutobi asked why this was. "I was simply reflecting, Sarutobi-sensei, on exactly how much of a fool you are. How this village endures under the protection as one as weak as you is beyond my knowledge."

"True. You would never understand."

"Understand what? Weakness? Blindness? This village, like all the others are blind. Nothing in the world truly endures but life, and it's secret. Of course, I had discovered it, and then you tried to kill me. The ignorance you see in me is of your own doing, Sarutobi-sensei."

Sarutobi closed his eyes, noting the anger radiating form the staff in his hands, "You were a failure which I had created, Orochimaru. Today, I will fix my past mistakes."

"You are welcome to try, but you will fail."

The last words exchanged, the two Shinobi propelled themselves at each other, clashing in combat. All battles between Shinobi are short, and brutal. This one was no different which had reduced the two to their current position.

Orochimaru, standing in a crater created by one of the fireballs performed by the Hokage, was locked with the sword from his mouth linked to the Ape turned staff, with the Hokage on the high ground. Orochimaru hissed through his teeth as he was slowly being pushed back, "It seems, Sarutobi-sama, that things will truly end today."

Backing away abruptly, the Hokage stumbled forward, in his off balance condition, Orochimaru brought his head back and slashed the sword from his left hip to the right shoulder, biting back a scream, blood erupted from the Kage's mouth as he landed on his back, his own life blood pooling around him, the staff rolling out of his fingers.

Orochimaru slowly stood over the dying man, "And now, you will –" Enma swung his arm which was still in the staff's form, watching in satisfaction as it cleanly cleaved off Orochimaru's left arm. Stumbling backwards, Orochimaru screamed as his right arm gripped the stump of an arm, "My arm! My arm!"

Sarutobi smiled as he lay on his back, "Now, my stupid student, who has truly lost the most?"

Orochimaru let out a scream of pure unaltered as the sword snapped back out from his mouth, bringing the sword down on Enma who disappeared before it connected in a puff of smoke. He spun towards the prone Kage, bringing the _Kusanagi_ around; he was surprised when he was blown backwards by a flurry of shuriken and kunai.  
Snapping his eyes to the side, he noted the steady but woozy Nukiuchi Raiden leaning against his blade, "You can't perform techniques with only one arm, Orochimaru, do you want to still fight me?"

Orochimaru screamed louder as he realised that he was low on chakra and missing limbs would make it worse, even the pain was barely bearable. Snarling he leapt back, calling for the retreat.

Raiden coughed as he realised that the Sannin had fallen for his bluff and retreated when the purple field around them dissipated. He collapsed against his sword, leaning against it as he fell into unconsciousness once more.

-

Takumi landed in a crouch atop the river, his hands flowing through seals one last time. For the last few moments, he had been doing everything in his power to cut down the enemy Bijou, he'd hacked at it, thrown Jutsu's at it and even set off his personal explosive note which was actually a very long scroll he dragged down the Tanuki's back and then detonated. Everything he'd done, he wasn't able to wound it permanently or get near the semi-conscious Shinobi atop its forehead. And now, after making a rather extravagant plan, he had put it into motion. He was a Kage and he had enough Jutsus 'borrowed' from the other Hidden Villages to juts pull this off, though he was sad that he couldn't defeat the creature with a pure Suiton.

Hands completing the final seal, he grinned,

"_Hyouton: Haryuu Muuko!"_ (Ice Release: Piercing Dragon Fierce Tiger)

Freezing the ice to produce the frozen tiger which tore out from the river like an arctic version of the Suiryuudan, it ripped through the air, the already soaked Tanuki began to freeze up as the tiger flew circles around it, freezing each droplet and stopping the bottom half of the demon completely before slamming into the Biju's neck, finally freezing there. Hands produced even more seals now that the final stage of his plan was commencing.

_Guess that traitor missing-nin Raiga, was good for something._ Swinging his large blade into the frozen leg of the beast, he let the technique loose,

"_Raikyu!"_ (Lightning ball)

Technique used, even in the daylight, the Shukaku and container both lit up like a second sun. The ice wrapped around the Tanuki exploded into water, hissing as the lightning coursed through it. A technique like this would obviously wake the Demon Child up. When the light show faded away, the sand creature collapsed with a thunderous 'kaboom'. Slowly, the Mizukage wiped his brow before walking over to the Sand Shinobi. Picking him up, he slung the boy over one shoulder before heading back.

"Seems you were a bit more trouble then you were worth, kiddo."

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

_Author's Note:__BWAHA! Finally, I finished the chapter, I feel so 1337.__Anyway, in this chapter, you may have noticed the huge amount of action, which may or may not have gotten tiresome, depending on the reader. This is to tide you over through the next few chapters as there will be next to no actual action in it. _

_Anyway, as I'm currently really tired, time to post this.__Oh before I forget; I'm too lazy to explain the Jutsu's that I've borrowed form the actual series and the movies so if you really want a detailed description, use Wikipedia.__Shadowcriminal: Now to clear things up, I said that the Seven Swordsmen were the Mist version of the Konoha Sannins; I never said they were equal in strength, like Zabuza alone would probably tear apart the Sound Four.__Also, how Naruto hasn't met the other Jinchuriki will be revealed in time._

_Also, Naruto will never have a biological Bloodline Limit, so don't bother thinking I'm gonna bust out the long lost brother whatnot with Heijia._

_One more factor; if you dislike OCs, stop reading now cause this story is gonna be swimming with them before long.__Yeah, that's about it…  
_

_- Nuebus _


	6. History

**History**

Heijia watched the retreating figure as the former Leaf Nin departed, shaking his head, he turned towards the Shinobi lying face down a fair distance behind him. Grunting, he hefted his blade onto his back, making sure that it wouldn't fall off before heading to the unconscious blonde. Heaving the unknown Shinobi's arm over his shoulder, he leapt from roof to roof, sighing at the remains of the once prestigious Konoha.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sandaime Hokage lay on his back in the hospital bed, staring up at the plaster ceiling, he closed his eyes.

_I truly am growing old. If the Mist Nin hadn't been there, there's a good chance that I would be dead at the moment. It seems I do need to choose a successor as the Godaime, the Fifth Hokage for I have grown weak, I could barely hold off my former student upon the roof._

He opened one eye and surveyed his surroundings, realising that he was in a standard medical room with the pristine white and clean conditions. He blinked when just as he looked at the wooden door; it opened, revealing a young man in the Mizukage outfit, followed by two Konoha Jounin, Ibiki-san and Hatake-san.

The two Jounin muttered out greetings as they flanked the Mist Shadow.

The Mizukage stopped as he regarded the ancient Hokage before him, "We must talk, Hokage-sama."

Ibiki easily helped the Hokage into a sitting position who winced as he felt the laceration across his chest twist as he moved, and then he adjusted the bed so it was like a long chair instead.

"Yes, Mizukage-sama?"

The Mizukage seated himself in a guest chair before leaning forwards and placing his elbows at his knees, fingers steepled.

"We must speak of why you are harbouring a Mist Nukenin, one known as Uzumaki Naruto."

Blinking, the Leaf Shadow leaned back into the reclining bed, "Uzumaki? I don't know any Uzumaki within my Village, well, at least not since twelve years ago."

"Perhaps you would know him better as, Mamori Yasha."

The Hokage lazily blinked, then stared at the ceiling, "Yes, I know of him, I had an ANBU member watching him, other then being a harmless cook though, he had only stolen one of our techniques and didn't seem to want more. So, rather then cause trouble, I left him alone, I did not think he would be a Missing-Nin though."

"Indeed. Though he is a criminal Shinobi, he is not a very dangerous one, at C-Class. However, we now have the problem of what to do with him."

The Hokage sighed as he flicked his grey eyes at the S-Class Shinobi, "Quite, the thing is, though, this is a more complicated situation then what your average Missing-Nin would be in. After all, your Sandaime was the one who agreed on the turn of events which ended up with me allowing the Mist to adopt Naruto."

"Yes, though _why_ did you allow us to?" Curiosity shown in the Mizukage's eyes.

"You know what he is, Yondaime-sama. Do you think the Leaf is as forgiving as the Mist? The people of Konoha are unlike the people of Kirigakure as they are sheltered from what Shinobi truly do and as such, will fear something which they see as a true danger, a Demon Vessel. My men have heard of how your people do not care in the slightest about your own demon vessel, the container of _Gobi no Houkou_, which is exactly the reason why you had received Uzumaki Naruto in the first place, and yet, you had failed to provide for him or keep him in line." The Sandaime stared levelly at the Mizukage Yondaime.

"Yes… I am sorry about our failure in that part, we never saw what Zabuza would actually do and nor did we believe in Zabuza's ideals, with the equal training by the Seven, we never thought Uzumaki would fixate on Momochi. It does seem that Zabuza often shows compassion and kindness to those under his care, at the report we received for his bounty." said the Kage.

"Yes, it does seem that when we are in power, we decline and don't see the threat until it was far too late…"

An uncomfortable silence settled between the two and the two Jounins escorted the Mist Shadow resisted the urge to fidget.

"How did you find out he was Uzumaki Naruto?"

Silence broken, the Mizukage pointed a thumb behind him at Ibiki, "Your Torture and Interrogations Specialist had Yamanaka Inoshi walk the boy's mind as he is still in a comatose state due to the combined chakra exhaustion, wounds and accelerated healing from the _Kyuubi no Kitsune_. The man had barely enough time to get the information before being thrown out violently by the fox roaming the back of Uzumaki's mind. Chances are, the gaki still doesn't know of it."

The Leaf Shadow nodded, "Now, the question is, what do we do with him?"

The Mist Kage's eyes lazily flicked a glance the two Jounins eavesdropping; the Hokage grunted and waved them outside. After the door closed shut, they lapsed into silence again.

Both Kages pondered for a moment before Takumi snapped his fingers, "Sarutobi, you don't mind me calling that do you? Anyway, I only see two options; first keep him here in Konoha as a Shinobi or second, send him back to Kirigakure to be a Shinobi. Personally, I'm for Naruto becoming a Mist Nin again."

Sarutobi snorted, "Of course you would, Kawazoe, if only to have two Jinchuriki at your disposal, if you're anything like old Fujiwara, you'd be slavouring as soon as you walk out of this room with Naruto under your wing."

The Mizukage raised his chin superiorly, "If I was. Thing is, Fujiwara was and is insane. He's basically Orochimaru except he succeeded in becoming a Kage. That is common knowledge and something we are not in the least proud of. He's currently locked up at Wind Prison's special attention along with two other S-Rank Criminals and a dozen other A-Ranks."

Sarutobi chuckled softly, "I suppose you are right in that aspect. Now, why do you think Naruto would do better in Kirigakure then in Konohagakure?"

"Well, first and foremost, Inochi-san had found that Uzumaki still held Zabuza in high regard, even before his death. I don't think he'd be too happy serving alongside the killer of his mentor and surrogate father."

"Hold on, since when did we say a Missing-Nin like Naruto would become a Shinobi again?"

"What? And waste the potential of powerful Shinobi _and_ a Biju? You going senile, Sarutobi? He's twelve and, according to Heijia-kun, he held off a Jounin level Sound Nin for most of their rounds and performed a Jounin technique. That'd place him at the least, as a Chuunin, add that to the power of the Kyuubi when he is used to it and we have a Shinobi with enough potential for Sannin level when he is twenty."

"Ahh, so you do want Naruto for the Kyuubi, and Heijia as in the one man squad Mist Genin?"

The Kage shrugged his broad shoulders, "Who wouldn't? Especially how ingenius the Konoha Yondaime's seal was, and yes, that Heijia-kun."

Sarutobi raised a hand and massaged the bridge of his nose, "Again, you are right. Back to the topic at hand, why else would Naruto be better suited to be a Mist Nin?"

"Well, another factor is his current proficiency with _Suiton_ techniques already, as I said, he did perform a Jounin level Jutsu that most Genin don't even have the chakra capacity for. The last factor is that the Mist civilians wouldn't care while the Konoha civilians would when they found out. He's been a Missing Nin once and probably would again if subjected to hate form all sides."

"Kawazoe… It does seem that you have persuaded me as the points out would sweep away the argument I had, sadly enough. But this time, make sure that Naruto does not become a Nukenin again."

"Without Fujiwara's insanity, it should be easy."

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Naruto's eyes opened and closed lazily, his fuzzy vision slowly clearing. He realised he was in a medical facility, considering the big white all around him. Eyes flicked back and forth and then to his right while ignoring the left as his bed was up against the left wall. He noted that he had been disarmed to the lowest level, not even the gauze of his Shinobi outfit remained. Next to the door however, there was an ANBU member watching him like a hawk. Naruto tried to shift but realised a bit late that something had been done to him, leaving his body limp and rather useless.

The door opened to reveal a man in the Mist Chuunin Vest, the large sword jutting out from behind his right shoulder. Brown eyes watched him from beneath the loose chestnut hair before giving a short glance at the ANBU who nodded and disappeared in smoke.

"Well, it seems you have been found out, Naruto-kun."

Naruto's eyes widened as he stared at the Mist Jounin standing at the doorway. The Jounin grabbed a chair and shifted it forward and then settled himself in it. Leaning forwards, he steepled his fingers as he regarded the Nukenin.

"I don't know why Mizukage-sama wants to give you a second chance, but what I do know is that you are being offered something that most Missing Nin are not. The chance to rejoin Kirigakure."

Naruto froze, his eyes stared blankly at the Jounin before his eyes rapidly opened and close din consternation, "_What?_"

"You heard me, Naruto, the Mist are willing to take you back as long as you swear loyalty to them once more, and this time, not go back on your word."

Naruto shook his head violently, whipping the blonde locks left and right before narrowing his blue eyes at the member of the Mizukage's personal guard, "First off, why are you offering this, as what you said, Missing Nin are rarely given a second chance. Second, what's the catch?"

The Jounin smiled, not that you'd notice it behind the cloth covering the lower half of his face, it seemed that all the Jounin bodyguards of the Mizukage had one, "Smart kid, already knowing that we're not offering this out of the goodness of our hearts. The first reason is … a mix. Officially, it'd be due to your skill and whatnot and also how we can warp you to be loyal to Kirigakure, unofficially, you'll have to talk to Yondaime-sama about it." Naruto could practically see the smile widening, teeth being bared, "To your second question, there is a Seal which will be place don you that both the Hokage and Mizukage-sama have access to, should you feel that you need to turn traitor again, the seal will incapacitate you through pain to which the closest Mist or Leaf Nin will pick you up for judgement."

Naruto narrowed his eyes, "Why are there two Kages who will have a hold over my life?"

"Konohagakure and Kirigakure are now allies as the Konoha Sandaime believe us much more trustworthy then the Sand; the only problem is the distance our countries are away from each other. I believe you still have to make a choice."

Naruto thumped his head back into the pillow as he stared at the ceiling angrily, he barely heard the "I'll give you time to think." And nor did he hear the door close.

In truth, Naruto did not think this as a hard question at all, though he had no real goals in life so far, he had the desire to live and perhaps something to make out of himself. Semi-slavery over one hundred percent chance of death is a definite. The problem was is that there are two powerful Kages with a hold over him that was practically a death hold as he practically could not deny either of them, as slavery, he could at least try for an escape, but this, there is not escape possible.

Then again, as he could join the Mist, he could learn about the Water techniques that exist and as such, learn how to properly utilize them. As shown by how soundly defeated by Kabuto he was, he knew himself to be a good Shinobi, but not great. He had no problems with being in the former Bloody Mist rather then the peaceful Leaf as; it does seem that he could not perform any _Katon_ techniques anyway.

Naruto grumbled as he shifted his hands only to realise that other then his head, he still had no use of any other body part. He rather disliked his forgetfulness at not asking the Jounin about it. Grumbling, Naruto closed his eyes as his mind debated with itself.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Mist Jounin Shimazu Taiki chuckled as he remembered the multiple changes in expression of the one known as Uzumaki Naruto. He had been watching the gaki ever since he saw Masahiro fall to the Sand Jounin. He frowned at the thought of a supposedly near S-Class Jounin falling to the Sand Nin. It seemed that relying on wind techniques wouldn't get you anywhere. In the battle Masahiro had been cut down by Baki and he'd watched as the Uzumaki kid leap down and nab the sword. He had been rather surprised at that, but after killing the Sound Nin he was in combat with, he followed the relatively unknown Shinobi.

Now, it turns out that he was a Nukenin Mist Genin who had skill with a blade. From just watching him, he saw potential, but potential that had been wasted without a proper instructor. He'd obviously tried to make his own style of swordsmanship, blending it with two of the three traitor Seven. The thing was, is that he was never taught what certain techniques were for and used them in the wrong sense. It was Kisame, not Zabuza, who enjoyed being up close and _very_ personal as he 'shaved' his opponents to death. Zabuza preferred using the middle to the end of his sword to cut at his opponents, keeping himself out of katana or kunai length. The kid had used Zabuza's style when he was up tight against the Kabuto fellow and then used Kisame's techniques when he was driving him back. One of many reasons why he lost, of course, another factor was that Kabuto _was_ a Jounin with most likely a heap of combat experience to back up his skills while Naruto only had the training sessions and Momochi's coup d'etat attempt.

He frowned and shifted the sword at his back, grumbling when it dented the plaster of the wall. A flicker at the end of the corridor caught his attention.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ino crouched there, her hands at her lap as she leaned out and glared at the closed door at the end of the corridor, her blue eyes glaring at the door, practically willing it to open.

Behind her, crouched with his elbow on his knee and his chin in his palm was the disgruntled Nara Shikamaru who contained to whine a little bit which he was awarded with the blonde girl's repetitive punches.

Standing up behind the pair was Chouji, happily munching away in a packet of chips, ignoring the world and the whines of 'troublesome' from his best friend. Of course, his forced lack of awareness was broken when he noticed Ino squeak and then use the wall as cover from the Mist Jounin's sight. Then there was the light breathing that disturbed his hair. Slowly, the Genin turned his head around, wincing when he noticed the Mist Chuunin Vest, "Uhh… Ohayo?"

Taiki watched in amusement as the other two members of the team practically jumped out of their skins, the boy whirling his head around to him in shock and the girl falling backwards onto her backside when she spun to face him.

He crossed his arms, "Now what are three Konoha Genin doing here?"

Ino immediately began to babble, "Umm, you see, well, uhh…"

Taiki cocked his head to the left in obvious amusement as he watched the girl attempt and fail miserably in thinking up a reasonable excuse or if you prefer to be blunt, a decent lie. He chuckled inwardly before taking her out of her misery, "Yes, basically you wish to see Naruto in hopes of understanding exactly what is happening to satisfy your own curiosity or find out what happened to your 'friend'."

She blinked in confusion, "Who's Naruto?"

To this, the older man burst out laughing, causing all three Leaf Nins to blink in consternation. Shikamaru spoke first, "What's so funny?"

The Jounin's laughter subsided as he looked at them, "It seems you still don't know the true identity of your friend, Mamori Yasha. Mamori Yasha is simply an alias for one know as Uzumaki Naruto, former Mist Nin and C-Class Nukenin."

At this, the fat one and the girl blinked in shock while the one with the pineapple styled hair nodded thoughtfully, "I thought there was something wrong with him. I saw him using chakra when he tossed the dishes at the shop to keep them in place but I thought I was imagining things, seems I haven't lost my touch but-"

Ino interrupted impatiently, "What exactly is going to happen to Ya- Naruto-san?"

"Sorry, kiddo, that's confidential for now. You'll find out later. And no, you're not allowed to have any contact with Uzumaki right now as he has been placed in temporary detention due to the fact that he is currently still a Missing Nin."

Ino opened her mouth to speak but was interrupted in turn, "No, I'm not giving any details. You'll just have to wait like the rest of the populace and just in case you try to break in the door, I've got a few dozen alarm Jutsu guarding it and I'd know if even the first layer was breached, so don't try anything stupid. Also, I included a few blast notes for any unlucky intruders."

With that, the Jounin disappeared in a flash, leaving only the soft echoes that a _Shunshin_ would make. Ino cursed vehemently.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Shimazu was in a very good mood. He had so far, shocked a Nukenin with the Mizukage's offer, scared a fat boy, surprised two other Leaf Nin and made the blonde a seething mess. Overall, today was a very good day. He wondered if he would have days like this all the time in the Leaf. If he did, he was already lightly considering defection.

He chuckled at how shallowly malicious he was. Now to go and report to the big boss, Mizukage-sama, and then he'd wait till tomorrow for Uzumaki's reply.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ino screamed in rage as the Jounin disappeared in a blur, snarling in rage, she yanked two kunai out and threw one recklessly while cutting at the wall with the other, grounding her teeth. The man had predicted practically everything she would have done and that didn't suit well with the blonde, after all, she was known to be rather unpredictable.

"I can't believe that asshole! Just 'cause he's some big shot Kage bodyguard, he thinks he can lord it over us! He's even worse then Hatake-san when he purposely acts condescending! Arsehole! Fucktard! Jackass! Arsehole!"

Shikamaru rubbed a hand over his face in his crouched position, "You already said that Ino-san and by the way you speak, you're starting to sound like that psychotic woman, Anko-sempai and all her enjoyment of blood and such."

"Yeah, well I'm starting to understand the way she acts as she does as her colleague, no, her _superior_ is Hatake himself!"

Chouji could practically see the future, Ino yelling, Shikamaru drawling, Ino screaming, Shikamaru drawling, Ino roaring, Shikamaru drawling. Shaking his head, he pulled his hand out of the bag of chips, wiped it on his shirt and touched Ino's shoulder from behind her, "Ino-chan, you shouldn't get worked up over this. We were here to find out what Yasha-san was here for but it seems things are a bit nastier then we thought."

"No duh, Chouji, you really have a habit of stating the obvious."

"Thank you, I try."

"Arrgh! Can't you two stay serious for more then a few moments?"

"Yes. It's just because you haven't calmed down yet and in your state, we won't get anything done." This time, it was the resident genius who answered.

"Fine, fine! Abuse the only object of beauty here!" With that, the girl spun on her feet, showing her back to the boys.

There was an awkward pause for a moment as both boys stared at the girl, blinking owlishly in unison. Shikamaru slowly mouthed 'Period.' to Chouji who nodded vigorously. The boy in the net shirt finally got irritated by the long silence and decided to break it, "So, exactly what do we do about Naruto now?"

Ino huffed as she turned again and extended one arm out, pointing her manicured finger at the door at the end of the corridor, "Walk in and talk to him of course!"

Shikamaru frowned, "The Jounin said he had alarms and other security measures guarding it."

"Well, we're Shinobi for a reason! We think _outside_ the box! He only said that he had proofed the door, he didn't say anything about the window, ceiling or going through form downstairs ceiling to Naruto's room's floor." Shikamaru was reminded of the book he had recently read about an over arrogant and rather pompous woman, a sweat-drop developed at the back of his head when she continued, "Honestly! I thought you two were smart!"

"Hai, hai, Ino-chan. The only problem with your logic is that while the Jounin didn't say that he had rigged the windows, ceiling or floor, he may have done so anyway. There's also the fact that he could always use a Jutsu that covered the whole room to any and all intruders. That, and if we had accidentally triggered any traps _after_ infiltrating the room, we'd all be, simply said, fucked. I enjoy the use of my various limbs thank you very much, and I think Chouji does too."

Chouji blinked at being included in the conversation and as the irate blonde was glaring at him, he gulped and his own beady eyes darted between his best friend and his female friend. Shikamaru grunted, "Also, it might cause damage to our jaws and I don't fancy eating out of a straw for the rest of my life."

At that, Chouji nodded like a lumberjack on crack.

Ino grumbled, "Well, do you have any ideas then, genius?"

"Course I do. I don't piss off the Jounin and find out at the same time as everyone else. It'll save us time, pain and effort without earning the ire of an elite Shinobi who carries a _very_ big sword."

"What? And just give up?"

"Well, yeah, as I said before, I don't fancy losing any limbs."

"But… We could…"

"We can't do jack, Ino. Yeah, you care 'bout Yasha-san, after all, you two did have your constant bouts of Sakura-san bashing, but right now, we can't do anything."

"But…"

"No buts, Ino. Yeah, I'd like to find out why the noodle kid is locked up at the level of a captured Shinobi's security but we will find out, like the rest of the public."

Ino sighed, taking a look at the wooden door at the end of the hall before glaring at her genius friend, "You're buying all my new clothes for the next week."

The Nara Genius groaned softly.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Naruto sat before the two Kages, fighting the urge to fidget as the old man, still wrapped in more then a few bandages watched him passively, puffing out of the ancestor of cigars. The Mizukage on the other hand, was leaning back in his chair, legs propped up on the wooden table before him, fiddling with his thumbs and staring at the ceiling.

The Leaf Shadow watched him for another moment or two then spoke, "Well, Naruto-san, it seems you have been keeping things from us."

"Yes, Hokage-sama."

"It seems that we have had a Nukenin of the Mist for weeks within the confines of Konohagakure," the Mizukage was speaking, "What we have to do now is decide your fate."

Naruto raised an eyebrow, his nerves calmed down considerably after fighting them, "Your Jounin's told me your terms yesterday."

The Mist Shadow snorted, "Those were the whole picture. Should you accept, there are a few tiny details we'll have to deal with, like what rank you'd be."

The Hokage looked at Naruto, puffed a bit more, and then spoke, "So, Naruto-san, what exactly is your choice?"

With a snort from Naruto this time, he levelled his eyes with theirs, "Its obvious isn't it? I've survived for quite a few years with next to no civilisation. That makes me a survivor, and survivors don't tend to make choices that end up getting themselves killed. If you two can't work out its meaning, then the answer is yes. I will take you up on your offer."

The Mizukage clapped his hands together, his legs coming off the table and flat on the floor when he leaned forward, "Excellent! Now what we have to do is sort out the little details and your comfort, however minimal that is."

The Yondaime Kage smiled as he adjusted his blue hat, "First off, you are to be reinstated as an official Mist Nin. Now what we need to do is work out your rank."

"Why not just put me back as a Genin, same as when I left?"

"And waste potential with D-Rank missions? I think not, I have three others to help judge your rank."

A movement caught Naruto's eye and with a small jump of surprise, he finally noticed the three Mist Jounin standing or leaning at the wall as one of them, the same Nin that had visited him at the hospital, stepped forward. He grunted as he looked down at the blonde, "Well, Mizukage-sama, I say do as the kid said, put him back as a Genin. I was watching him fight the Jounin-pretending-to-be-Genin and his sword skills are fucked up to say the least."

"How so, Taiki-san?"

Grunting again in displeasure at speaking without the condescending infringement, he spoke, "The gaki obviously tried to mesh Kisame's and Zabuza's technique together but the way he did it, it was like using his feet to fight and his hands to walk. An example was the master cut he performed; it was part of Momochi's style and would normally have torn the victim apart from the lower ribs. The fool used it within the reach of the Leaf Traitor's hands."

The two Jounin at the wall and even the Mizukage simultaneously winced. As Zabuza had rose through the ranks to one of the Seven Swordsmen of the Hidden Mist, his techniques, style and swordsmanship had been followed by all the other Nins. Everyone knew his attacks were supposed to strike at mid-length to the end of the blade. Any attacks performed that have the enemy within range of _Kubikiri Houcho's_ indented ring near the hilt was too close for the Demon's comfort. Naruto ground his teeth at the Jounin's mocking tone with his last comment.

"Then the stupid_ teme_ uses a horizontal axe swing with a _katana_!"

One of the Jounins groaned softly.

"However, while his swordsmanship is poor at best, his Ninjutsu seems to be quite capable, as shown when he performed the _Suiryuudan _without any evidence of even being winded."

One of the other Jounin stepped forward into the light, his eyes looking at the blonde curiously, Naruto recognised him as Nukiuchi Raiden, One of the Seven and the one who saved the Konoha Sandaime's life, Raiden raised an eyebrow, "A Jounin technique. Interesting. How'd he learn it?"

"Dunno, 'bout to ask him now." He turned back to Naruto, "So kiddo, want to tell me or do I have to force it outta ya?"

Naruto noticed that _Taiki_, the Jounin who had been talking, was slowly sounding more and more 'uncivil' with his language which had sounded like an irate businessman's before, now sounded like a street thug. Interesting in a shinobi.

"Hnnh. It's obvious that you're going to get it out of me sooner or later, might as well tell you now." Clearing his throat, he began, "I'm assuming everyone here, excluding the Leaf ANBU and Hokage, remember Zabuza-sama's attempt on the Mizukage Sandaime's life?"

A round of nods followed.

"Zabuza-sama had always taught me, 'If you can't get it all, make sure to get at least almost all.' The fact that you lot were all busy fighting his men had made quite a few of your guards leave their posts to join the fighting, including the ones that guarded the Vault of Scrolls."

The Mizukage let out a short bark of laughter at that, "And so you broke in, nicked a few dozen scrolls, as many as you could carry, and got out I assume? Fujiwara was raving about the loss of those scrolls for weeks. Anyway, back to the topic at hand, you obviously learnt what you could from what you could get your hands on. The Water Dragon Blast was one of them."

"Quite."

"Heh, you had taken quite a few of them; any chance we could get them back?"

"No, due to the fact that I had burned them all when I left my Sanctuary."

"Sad to find we lost quite a few scrolls and from what I remember, some of them were quite important to the scribes. Ahh, well, now back to the main topic, what rank should you be?"

Raiden flicked his eyes at the third Jounin who had yet to talk, and who looked like he didn't plan to anytime soon as well. He coughed, "Well, I say Chuunin, as the kid _had_ fooled most of Konoha with his act as Mamori Yasha."

The Sandaime Hokage nodded, "Yes, Naruto-san had succeeded with his façade as Yasha-san but he did not fool any of the Jounins. Hatake-san had privately come to me after the first meeting between Naruto and I to warn me about him."

Shimazu folded his arms, "That and it wouldn't do well to have an upper ranked Shinobi whose loyalty is questionable."

"His loyalty shouldn't be a problem, you remember what we discussed, Taiki-san."

"Yeah, yeah, I still say Genin though."

"From what Shimazu had told us, Naruto had held his own against Kabuto who Jiraiya-san claims to match the Copy-Nin Hatake Kakashi himself, that alone should be enough to get him to Chuunin."

"Raiden does have a point Taiki-san."

"Oh fine, take his side, just 'cause he's one of the Seven…"

"No argument?"

"Naw, too much effort to fight verbally in a debate. We all know I suck at that."

The Mizukage chuckled, "I'm willing to contest that considering how I was eavesdropping when you were telling your current wife how it was a good idea for the two of you to get married."

A visible twitch was shown as the Jounin just stared at his superior.

The Mizukage turned away from the shocked stare, "Well, since we don't have any arguments, Naruto will be ranked at Chuunin and, as I agree with Taiki on the trust issues, for a set period of time he is not allowed to participate in the Jounin Exam until he proves his loyalty."

Naruto raised his eyes to the ceiling, wondering why the hell they didn't just reinstate him as a Genin. As the guy said, having an untrustworthy member with any significant rank is always bad in your Village. Chances are, he has an alternative motive.

"Well, the first problem dealt with, we now need a place for our esteemed former Nukenin to stay."

Naruto raised an eyebrow in surprise, since when did such a trivial thing become a problem? Just dump him in a hotel or something along those lines and it's sorted out.

"Sorry, Naruto-kun, but as you _are_ newly reinstated, we must have someone more powerful to watch over you. Can't have you backslide now, can we?"

Ahh, so that was the problem. Considering what he'd seen of the Konoha Jounins, they'd probably not want to be bothered with someone hanging onto them like a child.

Taiki grunted again, his arms crossed, "I'll take the gaki."

Takumi blinked in surprise, his blue Mizukage hat slid to the right forcing him to grab it, "Wait, _you_?"

"Yeah, me. Or were you expecting the giant three headed dragon from wind country?"

"That doesn't make much sense, Taiki-san, and I just don't see you taking care of _any _kid at all, as I remember you not even sympathetic to the beggar children in the Country of Sound the last time we visited."

"Yeah, well those stupid kids are whining for money without trying to lift a finger to actually work. This kid could hold his own in most jobs and plus, I need someone to heap abuse on daily. It might soften up my alcoholism."

"You really need to work on your people skills, Taiki-san."

"Why?"

"Because you… Nevermind."

The Mizukage looked down at Naruto who had been following the conversation in amusement, "Well, Naruto-kun, what do you say to living with this brute we call a Jounin?"

Naruto shrugged, "It's alright, as long as he isn't a paedophilic psycho who has urges for little boys."

The Mizukage burst out laughing, the Hokage choked on the cigar's ancestor, the rest of the Jounins snickered in the background but Shimazu himself only grunted and shrugged.

The Sandaime of Konoha grinned, "You've got your wits around you, boy. If you ever tire of being a shinobi, politicians seem to be needed."

The Mizukage calmed down after a few more moments of laughing at the Jounin's expense, "Well, with two of three problems out of the way; we have just one more."

His face sobered up pretty quickly at those words, he made a waving motion towards the Jounins who all nodded and left, with the exception of what was, apparently, Naruto's future guardian. After the lock on the door clicked shut, the Mist Kage watched Naruto levelly before slowly raising a finger and pointing it at the blonde's stomach, "Naruto, do you know what that is?"

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Abareru Heijia grunted as he shifted the sword on his back. Three times he had to shift it to avoid it being jammed somewhere as he walked through the ruined streets of Konoha, the reason was that the place was completely cluttered up with destroyed buildings and such, mostly caused by the enormous battle between Kage-summon and Biju. Of course, it had been several weeks since the original invasion but the Konoha clean up forces are doing parts of the Hidden Village piece by piece and this particular piece of landfill hadn't had much effort put into it other then the removal of the bodies. Speaking of bodies, the body-count on Konoha's forces were pretty high, initially, after the battle and he'd been check out of the hospital in favour for the more seriously injured, everywhere he looked, there had been dead shinobi. One area in particular had thirty-nine dead bodies, sixteen of which were Konoha's. The place resembled a battlefield that the films had of the Great Ninja Wars.

He shrugged and then bent his knees, leaping into the air and landed on a rooftop with a distinct 'clack'. He nearly slipped when the slate his foot landed on gave way, crumbling apart even as it fell to the ground after sliding off the roof. Snorting, the Mist Nin kept his hands in his pockets before leaping across roof by roof. He needed to check something out.

Landing on the roof which was his destination in a half crouch, he chuckled when he saw the ruptured water tanker and fondly remembered the way that the Jounin had been blown right into it. Chuckling softly, he scanned the area, before he started remembering the fight between himself, his ally, Naruto, and the ANBU infiltrator.

He shifted his new Mist Chuunin vest, a tad self conscious about the new article of clothing, he checked the roof, ignoring the remains of kunai and shuriken thrown during the fight. He had remembered a section in the combat where Naruto had been sent hurtling away, the thing was, however, he had _wanted_ to be sent that way, being bored out of his mind, Heijia had decided to find out why.

Slowly, he took a few steps, working out that he was currently standing right under the area that Naruto had been launched from; his eyes followed the imaginary arc that Naruto would have fallen in. Bending his knees, he leapt in that direction, landing on the much lower house roof in another squat.

He turned his head left and right, eyes scanning the ground then the roofs, noting the human shaped hole in a slated roof. Making another bounding jump, he went through the air and came down, flying through the hole caused by Naruto after being kicked. Heijia raised an eyebrow at his surroundings, a rather bland personal room, the only strange thing about it was a roll of gauze that the standard Shinobi wears, a single kunai left after being used to cut the gauze and the window was open. He looked out the window, blinking as a lone pouch, surrounded by debris lay there with no bodies nearby. Grunting, he heaved himself out, crouching next to the pouch and scooping it up.

He flipped the lid off and took a close look inside. There were a few shuriken, two blank scrolls and one sealed scroll which didn't look like it was supposed to be inside a Nin pouch. His hand slid in, grasping it before pulling it out and snapping the seal off. He rolled the scroll open, blinking at the words written in bold at the top; **Uzumaki Naruto**, what the hell was a pouch lying out in the middle of no where holding information of the former Nukenin?

Shaking his head, Heijia's eyes followed the words as he read down the scroll, muttering the words under his breath as he did so;

_Age: 12_

_Date of Birth: October 10_

_Height?_

_Appearance?_

_Blood Type: B_

_Eye Colour: Blue_

_Relatives: None._

_Affiliation?_

_Uzumaki Naruto, born on the day of Kyuubi, the Nine-Tailed Fox's defeat was also the subject of its defeat. It seems that the Yondaime Hokage had successfully mixed a Forbidden Technique with another Jutsu that reinforced it. At the cost of his own life, the Yondaime sealed the Kyuubi within the child._

_It is also due to this reason, even though the Yondaime had wanted the boy to be seen as a hero, that he was hated when the news got out. As such, I was reinstated as Hokage, even though I am the Third and was forced to take steps to protect Naruto. My original decision was to create a Law of Silence, forbidding all from voicing the knowledge of Naruto's burden to stop the spread of rumours to their children. However, through unknown means, the Mizukage, Fujiwara, had somehow found out the information about Naruto and offered to take care of him. I was originally suspicious of his intentions but from further debate decided it was best as there have been two assassination attempts on Naruto's life by Konoha Chuunin already._

_As of now, Fujiwara's failed attempt to contain Naruto's loyalty has lost him the container of the Nine-Tails. The alliance between the two Hidden Villages has been broken._

Heijia stared a moment as he digested the knowledge that he had fought alongside the container of a Biju. He began to chuckle. It was no wonder he had such special attention, no body would want such a valuable weapon destroyed, rather, most would prefer to have it for themselves. This Naruto fellow _was_ interesting.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I sorta had a writer block near the end so, sorry about that. I'll make a Jutsu list of the previous chapters probably in the next instalment.

- Nuebus


	7. Caged

**Caged**

Four days after that particular meeting had Naruto walking out of the Hokage Tower, his gloved hand tracing circles around the shape of the black seal at the back of his neck. The seal itself was not original, practically an imitation of the Yin and Yang symbol. However, what it did to the person was original; being that if Naruto manages to screw up badly enough that it has to be activated… Well, the former Nukenin would be left lying on the ground screaming insanely as he scratched and cut at the dried ink.

A good thing that did come out from this whole escapade were two things: The first was that as soon as they arrived in the Hidden Mist, he was going to get his own oversized war sword. The second was the Chuunin Vest he was already wearing over his usual gear as its hidden compartments were much more versatile then the make-shift ones of his old clothing. Like all the other Hidden Villages, the Mist Chuunin Vest was also worn by the majority of Jounins, but not only for the extra pockets, but protection as well. Whilst the vests of Konoha would only defend against blunt and bludgeoning attacks, a rarity among ninja, the Mist was the only one to include light steel plates sewed on the inside of each vest. It may be a slight bit more encumbering, but it was useful when dealing with large masses of shuriken. The Mist also happened to be the only Hidden Village with the resources in metal for this kind of creation, given that only they and the Cloud lived on top of metal mines. Given that the Cloud specialise in lightning Jutsu, it's obvious why they haven't got any armoured vests. However, the light plating would only defend against light weaponry, such as shuriken as Mist nins wouldn't want it to be too encumbering that they have a hard time moving.

Moving his hand away from his neck, he tugged at the collar of the vest, frowning slightly. There was also one minor thing that he considered bad and that was the loss of both his own sword and pilfered katana. The sword he had, no matter that he had outgrown it, was destroyed when a Konoha nin shooting off several katon techniques accidentally blew up his room at Ichiraku's when he missed his target. The katana? Well, he was not allowed to keep it due to it being a family heirloom of the dead Mist shinobi. A shame, it was a good blade.

He sighed, and turned to head towards the village centre, where he could purchase shinobi equipment openly. As he took his fifth step, he noted the presence of three people standing behind him. He turning around, he acknowledged the presence of Yamanaka Ino, Akimichi Chouji and Nara Shikamaru.

"Well, what brings you three to come seeking me out?"

Ino glared at him furiously, "We want answers, Uzumaki-san."

He sighed, he had been expecting the regulars of Ichiraku to come looking for him, and he just didn't expect them to be these three, "Fine, then. Follow me to Training Ground Six, its more private there."

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Well, how to start, how to start…", mumbled Naruto.

"You can start by telling us why you lied to us." Ino snapped.

He raised an eyebrow, "I expected you to figure that part out with ease, a Missing nin within Konoha's walls, surrounded by Jounin and Chuunin with pretty much every Jounin more capable as a fighter. What do you think?"

Ino flushed and opened her mouth for spiteful retort but was interrupted by the shadow-user, "Hmm, well you could tell us why you chose Konoha in the first place."

"I didn't. When I left my little hermitage I had the skills of the illiterate when it comes to the landscape, so I planned to follow the first road I find. Team 7 just happened to come upon me as I was on the road."

"So why'd you stay here?"

"Two reasons; first to see what kind of tricks I could pick up in Konohagakure, and second, to find somewhere with human contact that I could live at."

"So basically you'd move onto like the Cloud or Sand once you learnt all you could?"

"Yeah, that's about it."

"Did you even have a goal set out when you left?", asked Ino.

"Not really. I was hoping to get adopted by some or another Village, I just didn't expect Kirigakure to take me back in."

"Oh."

An awkward silence befell the four people. Not the Chouji had said anything anyway. This silence was once again broken by the Yamanaka.

"So what happens to you now?"

"Well, I've been reinstated as a Mist nin, as shown by the vest I'm currently wearing."

"As a Chuunin."

"Well… Yeah. I kinda deserved it considering I pulled a Jounin level technique off."

"Really? What kind?"

"Confidential. Though I'm pretty sure _Hatake_ would know."

"Why the dislike for Kakashi-sempai?"

"Let's just say some things can't be forgiven shall we?"

Turning the subject back to the original, Ino continued, "So you're just going to go and leave Konoha back to Kiri?"

"Yeah."

Before another moment of silence fell upon them, Ino smiled, "Awkward silences like this conversation doesn't it?"

Naruto chuckled lightly, "Yeah."

"So, want to spar?"

"I got nothin' against it."

"Good. I want to see exactly how well you Mist nins fight if Kirigakure and Konohagakure are going to be allies."

In the background, Chouji continued to munch happily on his chips.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Naruto brushed the sweat from his eyes before dropping to a crouch and making a short thrust with his temporary sword.

Currently, he was sparring with the sadistic bastard known as Nukiuchi Taiki, with the blonde using one of six swords owned by his opponent. Each attempt to cause even a glancing hit was commented on with contempt. Each try for something original was countered with ridiculous ease and this left Naruto more then a little pissed off.

After a teary farewell from both the ownerss from Ichiraku, the Old Man and Ayame, he was given a farewell group hug from Ino's team, in contrast to where he simply said 'bye' to the other teams he wasn't so close to. After that, they were on the road for seven days, moving at a casual speed rather then ninja tree jumping the whole way. Every night he and some member of the Mizukage's group would spar, all resulting in the former Nukenin's defeat. However, the fact that a runner had been sent to Kirigakure with all the measurements from Naruto's height to the width of his hands to inform the blacksmiths that a custom zanbatou was needed to be smithed kept the youngest member of the caravan warm in the cold nights.

However, at the moment he was once again taking a beating from Taiki. After a particularly irritating blade lock where the older and more experienced swordsman shoved Naruto back several feet, said blonde came back with a full horizontal swing with all his momentum and bodyweight behind it, intent to split the Jounin in half from waist height. In a brutish counter, Taiki took one step back, spinning around while drawing his own sword back and as he spun the full 360, brought his sword down on Naruto's. Hard. Naruto grunted as he conceded defeat, the blade he was using imbedded in the earth with Taiki's one underneath his chin. He never stood a chance.

"Stupid boy. Never use full body swings unless your opponent is off balance enough that it even has a chance of connecting. That foolish trick of yours allowed me to think of a dozen and a half counters, most of which would have been lethal and you'd be dead if we really were trying to kill each other.", snarled the Jounin as he sat on the camp bench to wipe the grime off his sword.

"Bah, if we were trying to kill each other, I'd have killed you sixty two times in those ten minutes." , he added as if in an after-thought.

Naruto grunted, holding his hands together to stop the shaking off that jarring disarming technique, "Asshole."

"Cretin.", returned the Jounin.

"Jackarse."

"Failure."

These insults continued for a while Naruto moved away where he thought about the duels they had already had. As shown by the skill displayed by these swordsmen, he was most likely the weakest in the group, so he knew two things.

First, he had to grow in skill and power, to match these people surrounding him. Second, he had to find out why he was given all this special treatment, after all, had Gozu and Meizu been successfully given to the Mizukage, they'd be a right mess. Literally.

He wondered if this treatment had anything to do with the rather large tattoo covering his stomach.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Finally, the party of shinobi arrived at the Hidden Mist, with nothing exciting happening in between and Naruto beaten up on a daily basis. The place was fairly familiar to what Naruto remembered, with only a few changes here and there. Like all Hidden Villages, it was fairly impressive. Not to the point of matching Konoha but still something that would stay to the memory for first timers.

The city was shaped oddly, the majority of the buildings wrapped up by an enormous wall surrounding it in an hexagon shape. A large river ran through the Hidden Village, with several bridges for its crossing. For the Village, there were enormous steel gates on the east, west and south. However, on the north, it wasn't a walled end, instead the walls expanded to accommodate a road leading in that direction up a hill. At the top of the hill was an enormous Tower which just happened to be the home of the Mizukage. The areas leading up to the Kage Tower were all training fields, and if you had been on the walls at that moment, you would have seen the explosions caused by the explosive notes tossed around and the occasional jutsu.

However, while Konoha's walls were solid concrete, Kiri's walls were wooden, reinforced to protect against physical attacks and both water and fire resistant though, it was still wooden. The majority of the buildings were made of wood as well, only with the few made of concrete and/or brick being few and far in between. It was strange how that the Mist lived on top of a series of metal mines, they remained the poorest of the most powerful Shinobi Nations. Though whilst they were poor, its far from likely that they would be easy to defeat, with the broken islands surrounded the Hidden Village, each sect of land housed a much smaller Village, home to ninja who would immediately report attacks to the main house. Most likely the place was chosen for the Village to be built because of the defensive land.

Naruto was brought out from these musings as the great steel door slowly shuddered open, the caravan entering without losing a beat. He thought it a bit odd, with a semi-large amount of activity from the civilians in comparison to the years back when he lived here with only one or two walking the streets, the rest being locked up in their homes in fear of the mad Mizukage known as Fujiwara. He expected that the group would immediately head towards the Tower, but it turns out that grabbing a sword for the blonde was more important. The blacksmiths area was distinctive, due to the large amount of smoke being puffed out of the enormous chimneys. The Blacksmith district was positively buzzing with activity, with men dragging large bars of metal around, hammering to shape the steel and generally work the steel shapers do.

Out of the seven people in the Mizukage's party, excluding Naruto, four had already left in their own directions, to greet wives and children or whatever they usually do after a mission. Naruto was guided to one of the shops positively brimming with blades.

Shimazu grunted, "This is your stop Uzumaki. Grab your sword and head to the Mizukage Tower and we'll be there waiting for you. I'm sure you know where it is."

Naruto nodded distractedly and entered the shop with a smile etching his face..

When he pulled open the thick curtain covering the arch of the doorway, he was immediately assaulted by heat, smoke and plenty of moisture. The hiss of steam exploded out near him as a shaped blade was being speed cooled and he dimly heard the shouts of a burly man to get out of the way. Said burly man was wearing a thick brown apron over his bare torso, brown civilian boots, grey thick and baggy pants with mitten like gloves as he drained the water away. Reaching into the concrete box where the water had drained from, he pulled out a straight long sword, which he unceremoniously tossed one of many wooden tables.

"The fuck do you get off coming in without ringing the bell, boy? You think your ninja skills would save you from getting a face full of super heated air?", snarled the old man, his grey beard bristling with rage.

"Do you know what could have happened to you if you had stepped one more step forward, boy!?"

"Uhh…"

"You'd probably be blinded, with you screaming in pain from the shredded and melted skin at best! At worst, the heat woulda already reached your brain and fried it!"

"I don't –"

"Fool boy! What do you think those seals around the cooler do? I thought every parent raised their brats up to beware the Blacksmith district, but apparently they have not!"

"But, I'm –"

"Well? What have you got to say for yourself?"

"Ahm… I was guided here to pick up a swor –"

"Ahh! You're that rich brat coming in from Konoha, the most pussyfaced of all the asscracks they call 'Hidden Villages'. More like Hidden Fuckwitry given the quality of the blades I've seen made there."

He removed his mits, using the rather large hands to massage his bald scalp before heading towards the back of the shop, gesturing for Naruto to follow. They stopped by a large cabinet-like cupboard, which the smith opened with a yank. Inside, propped up against the back of the cabinet were two katanas, a broadsword and a zanbatou. Grabbing the oversized sword, he easily hoisted it out to which he drove the hilt into Naruto's hands.

"You tell that fag of a Kage that he owes me double considering the materials I needed to build that sword. If he doesn't pay, I ain't ever making him his prized chakra blades again."

He paused at Naruto's hopeful expression before snapping at him, "You're a bloody Chuunin boy, don't think just cause you got some special attention, you'd get your dainty little pissface hands on one of those prizes, much less that blade in your hands being one of them! Now get the fuck outta my shop before I show you what a former Jounin can do to whelps like you!"

The blonde hurriedly exited the shop, assisted in speed by more snarling coming from the Blacksmith before stopping outside to examine the blade. At a mere glance, he could tell the blade was made by an expert in his craft. Its length was 5"6, barely leaving an inch in height between Naruto and the sword. Its width was similar to that of Zabuza's zanbatou, but that was where the similarities ended. The first difference was that the sword was double edged, both sides being hammered to a point instead of converging to a point like what most Mist nin swords are like. The flat of the blade had a rectangular gap, about an inch wide and running near the whole width of the sword. The point of the sword however wasn't a typical point either, rather it was curved to fan out in width in comparison to the rest of the blade before ending in an axe like point. Like traditional zanbatou's, the blade had no crossguard, only a long and sturdy handle, wrapped in dark red cloth. Naruto took one good look at the blade, before finding his soul mate.

Spending several minutes just admiring the blacksmith Jounin's handiwork, he only realised where he was again when one of the smithy apprentices jostled into him, where he took in his surroundings and headed towards the Mizukage Tower.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

After winding through the streets of Kirigakure with very little fanfare, other then a nod from a half-way drunk Chuunin, Naruto arrived at the miniature fortress that is the Kage Tower. The tower itself was surrounded by a fairly high stone wall, with its own moat to boot. Naruto did not remember these installations the last time he was here, but given that at the time, it was in the middle of a civil war, more defences for the Kage Tower seemed prudent.

Laying across the boat was a nailed down wooden bridge, which led to rather large reinforced double doors. As Naruto made his way across the bridge, he thought that his footsteps seemed abnormally loud. These thoughts were rudely interrupted by the loud creaking of the double doors opening which reminded the teen of the outer gate. The sight that greeted him was mostly not unexpected, a cobbled pathway leading in a straight line directly to the Kage Tower but also meeting ay a crossroad exactly in the centre which headed to identical buildings on either side of the Tower. The Porter, a giant of a man at 7"9", dressed in nothing but a pair pants and his forehead-protector hanging off his belt gave a small wave before sitting back down on his bench and pulling out an orange book.

Naruto shook his head, being exposed to Hatake Kakshi enough to know exactly what book that was about. Porn masquerading as literature, written by Jiraiya, less commonly known as a member of the former Legendary Three and Sannin. Shrugging, he took a few steps towards the tower when an ANBU member appeared in a miniature cloud of dust.

"Uzumaki-san, I have been instructed to guide you to Yondaime-sama."

Cocking his head to the side, Naruto nodded, "Lead the way."

It turns out that the ANBU Mist member was largely unnecessary, as even though the Tower's layout was different from what the blonde remembered, the Kage's Office was typically at the top of the building which only required the two nins to climb about a dozen floors on foot. As soon as they had reached a fairly plain wooden door, the Mist-nin bowed to Naruto, "We are here." With that, he faded into the shadows and disappeared.

Naruto frowned.

_I so need to learn how to do that._

He opened the door.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Mizukage-sama, are you sure you wish to do this?"

"Quite sure, Atsutane-san. We managed to wrestle Naruto away from old Sarutobi and you don't want to release his full potential? I am disappointed in you, old friend."

The older man grunted, his grey eyes steadily watching the Kage of the Mist, "Its not that, Mizukage-sama, but your seal is fresh, and for all you know, the sudden influx of demonic chakra would destroy the seal, letting the boy do as he pleased with a relatively unlimited supply of chakra."

"You worry too much, the seal was made by both Sarutobi and myself. Even if Sarutobi is a jack-of-all-trades and not a seal master, Jiraiya showed up to overlook it. He seemed fairly confidant that it would hold."

"But you never mentioned that you planned to unlock the second layer of seals keeping the Kyuubi at bay."

"The seal will hold, Atsutane. Do not worry."

The former ANBU Captain and current member of the Seven sighed, releasing a nostril full of smoke before scrubbing the cigar in the dish, "I hope so, my friend. I am not keen on having to face a Kyuubi enhanced shinobi, if your battle with the weakest demon was any indication."

The Kage waved his hand dismissively, "Naruto currently willingly supports us. Unless we start sending nins to kill him, I don't believe he would turn on us, even if the seal broke."

Shimazu Taiki chose this moment to speak, "Even if he should turn on us, he would be a threat similar to that of an A-class nin only at his best. That Gaara kid had years of experience with the Tanuki, and blondy has had about 2 years before the extra seal was placed on and the only push he's had from the demon is strengthened chakra coils, if his _Suiryuudan_ was any indication."

Raiden nodded in agreement, "As well as this, Jiraiya-sama has informed us of the presence of an organisation known as the _Akatsuki _which covets the Jinchuuriki's tenants. Given that the organisation is solely made up of S-Class criminals, with Kisame in their collection as well; the boy will need all the help they can get if they run into each other."

The Mizukage slapped a hand down on the oak desk, the sound reverberating around the hexagonal office, "Then we are agreed. The boy needs to have the second layer of suppression seals removed."

Said Mist Shadow now leaned back against the heavily cushioned chair, "Now, we have the question of who would train Naruto, and before you speak Taiki; you are already his guardian, I need you on the more dangerous missions and your sword form would not be very fitting for the boy, so I ruled you out."

The Mist Jounin lowered his raised hand and nodded in acceptance. Taiki understood that even though he was ranked as a Jounin in combat capabilities, he was one of the weakest; his skill based on subtlety and spying, a trait which the Mist Kage valued highly as it won the civil war in his rise for them. After all, senile Fujiwara was drugged before the attack on the Tower, and all because of his trust in Shimazu Taiki. These had earned him a promotion into the Black Ops ANBU, which he had recently retired from.

"Personally, I cannot take an apprentice due to the fact that my time will be filled with the war against the Sound, so I'd like a member of the Seven to take him in."

Atsutane tilted his head to the side with a raised eyebrow, "If you wanted one of us to do it, why not have have Shigematsu-sama do it?"

Takumi's eyes slid to Atsutane, "Same reason why I don't have Taiki-san training him. As the leader of the Seven, he will have his hands full on the most dangerous missions as well as the fact that his _Tsuin-Ken _techniques would be of any use to a _Zanbatou_ wielder."

Taiki grunted, "Then have Hisae train him, she uses a _Zanbatou_, is a current member of the Seven and was engaged to Zabuza at one point. Set, point and match. Perfect for blondy."

"Only problem is that she's out on a mission. That and her mentality towards men isn't exactly healthy."

Raiden chuckled, "I can testify to that."

"Then we wait for her to get back to train the kid. We teach him basics that he's glossed over and such in the meantime, also; her violent attitude towards the boy wouldn't be too much of a problem as she won't kill him and any wounds she does cause for him will be healed by the Kitsune as soon as it is unsealed."

"Capital idea. So its agreed that Naruto will be trained by Hamada Hisae?"

"Hai."

"Hai."

"Hai."

"Well, that's that problem out of the way. Naruto will be arriving soon and we shall have to explain a fair bit of his future, in detail, to him."

With perfect timing, a Mist ANBU member appeared inside Takumi's office, "Naruto-san is waiting for you, Mizukage-sama."

"Couldn't have planned it better myself. Send him in, ANBU-san."

"Yes, Mizukage-sama."

Kawazoe Taiki smiled beneath his blue Kage hat.

_The week couldn't get any better if it tried._

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------_  
_

Naruto's gloved hand released the knob as the wooden door swung open. Inside, behind an ornate desk was the Mizukage himself and surrounding him were two members of his retinue, being Taiki and Raiden. A fourth figure sat on the couch in a half slant, a large curved sword propped up next to him. From first glance, he was obviously a ninja given he wore his hitae-ate in its traditional position and bore the vests that most Mist nins at Chuunin and higher wear. However, if you looked closely at his sword, you'd notice the seals marking along the entire length of the blade, giving it a faint glow. Few ninja would fit the description of wielding a blade that is obviously a _zanbatou tenken _and as such, he was most likely one of the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist; deserving of respect.

As he had walked in on four ninja that were all at Jounin level and higher, he knew that it was a meeting. Naruto frowned at this as he believed that it would be himself that the Mist leaders were speaking about and it wouldn't be too great as news. He sighed.

"Yes, Mizukage-sama?"

"Ahh, Naruto, we were just speaking of you and your future within our village."

"I figured."

"Good, good. Nice to know its not empty air between those shoulders of yours."

At this, the Kage took a deep breath, "Naruto, there is one thing you must know about your past."

Naruto remained silent, his eyes narrowing on the Kage.

"Contrary to what you believe, you were not born to be a Mist shinobi, rather, you were born to be a Leaf shinobi."

Naruo raised an eyebrow, "So I was born in Konoha?"

"Indeed, boy. This may come as a shock to you, but what I'm about to tell you has a far larger impact on what you believe currently, then just that you were supposed to be in Konoha. You are a Jinchuuriki."

Naruto stared at the Kage, his knees buckling as Taiki kicked a chair behind Naruto, cause the boy to slump down on it like a ragdoll.

He looked up, "So… You're telling me that I got one of the tailed Makai inside me?"

Takumi watched him with a steady gaze, "Yes, boy. And not just any of the Makai, but the greatest of them all. The Kyuubi no Kitsune."

What little will that kept the blonde alert disappeared, leaving him in shock. His blue eyes slightly vacant, he continued to stare aimlessly behind the Mizukage.

After a minute of his pointless staring, Taiki snapped his fingers in front of his face.

Naruto jumped.

"I know this is a lot for you to take in, but what Mizukage-sama says is all truth. So any denials you were about to make will be useless."

Naruto faced the man that spoke, the man being Hachirobei Atsutane.

'But… but I've never had any influence from the Kyuubi? How is this possible? The Jinchuuriki from Suna was half insane from the effects of the Tabuki alone. How did I survive unscathed?"

The Mist Shadow spoke again, "Simple. You had a complete seal which was designed to allow the Kyuubi to only allow the slightest of influence over you, namely your chakra coils. Had you not be moved to the Mist as a child, they would most likely match that of a Jounin by now."

"Wait a minute? Why did they stop growing when I moved to the Mist?"

"Another simple answer. The Sandaime Mizukage. Unlike Sarutobi and myself; who have complete control over you via the seal…"

Naruto winced at this.

"… Fujiwara had no way to guarantee loyalty on your part, so, until he could completely put you under his thumb, he had a second suppression seal placed on you, removing any and all influence the Kyuubi may have. After all, he wouldn't want a Jinchuuriki to turn on him."

Naruto's open mouth clicked shut, a frown returning to his face as he thought about the implications, "So what happens now?"

"Now? We drag Fujiwara out of prison, make him unseal his seal, get you used to Kyuubi's chakra in your system again and then we lock him back up. After that, you get to meet your new sensei, whome I think you would enjoy learning from."

"And you decided all this without consulting me? This is my future you're –"

"Silence. You are a Mist nin and with the upcoming war we need all the help we can get. Your morality and/or self-will means nothing in the long run as this war is not only against the Sound as you well know. It is also against the Akatsuki, whome is a threat equal to that of the entire Sound Village, if not greater."

Naruto grimaced as he thought of the whine he had just made. After a moment, he spoke again, "So, what exactly are the Akatsuki?"

Atsutane spoke again, interrupting the Mizukage, "The Akatsuki are essentially demon/demon-vessel collectors bent on world domination using the power of the Makai. They number nine in all, one for each demon."

With a raised eyebrow, Naruto questioned this, "If they are only nine people, how do they make such a powerful threat?"

"Let me finish, boy. The Akatsuki may lack numbers, but they more then make up for this with quality, as all their members are reputedly S-Class criminals, including one of our former members, Hoshigake Kisame, whose form you are masquerading around with."

"So, we're basically up against a whole Shinobi Village, and ten S-Class nins if we count the Sound leader?"

"That sums it up. Yes."

Naruto's eye twitched, "Sounds fun."

"Indeed."

An awkward silence followed, which was interrupted by the Mizukage, "Given you now know the details, you are barely a B-Class ninja yourself, you must train hard and fast once we have unlocked the Kyuubi to be able to face your own threats. You will have no rest until the Akatsuki lies in tatters and Orochimaru, leader of the Sound Village, lies dead."

"Yeah. As I said, real fun." The boy blinked glanced back at the Mizukage, "You said something about me getting a new sensei? Who is he?'

The Mizukage smiled, "She. And her name is Hamada Hisae, a member of the Seven, and formerly engaged to your first sensei, Zabuza."

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hisae smiled coldly as she stayed crouch on the treebranch. If a person saw her, they'd notice she was wearing a grey tank top with combat camouflage pants as well as combat boots instead of the usual shinobi sandals. Over these, she wore a trenchcoat which trailed a ways off the branch she was stationed at, and on her back was a massive blade, most well known as a _zanbatou _ which she was well known in the bingo book for using.

Behind her, near her position were a pair of Mist ANBU who acted as her backup, both bearing traditional katanas rather then the oversized blades. Hisae brushed a thumb across her forehead-protector which was strapped at her right upper arm, before her gaze focused on the small mansion below.

The mansion was the home of Baisotei Amane, a retired Stone Nin who has been everything ranging from foolish thug to a brutal, criminal businessman. Strangely enough, the contract for his death came from Iwagakure, as if someone did not want him to be outside their influence. Given that the retired ninja was pretty much was imitating an Orochimaru, gathering stray nins for a whole new Village, this seemed prudent.

As Hisae watched, out of all the ninja in the area, it was Baisotei himself who was the biggest threat as an A-Class ninja, and former Tokubetsu Jounin. Even though the man was retired, he continued to wear his Iwa Chuunin/Jounin Vest which showed that he remained alert for battle. In his compound were now twenty or so shinobi, the largest threat amongst them was at Chuunin level and from his attire, he was a former Leaf nin.

Hisae only snorted.

_This would be a piece of cake. Not even worth my time._

Raising an arm, her index finger tilted forward. The two ninja behind her nodded and disappeared with the use of the _shunshin_, disturbing almost nothing in their movement. She waited.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Mizuki was not having a good week. He had always coveted power, power that Orochimaru-sama could provide, and as such, he followed his instructions to steal the scroll. As he had been promoted to ANBU for his part in the battle over Konoha, he easily drugged the ANBU members guarding the Hokage Tower's storage room. He had fled with the scroll, making it a fair distance before curiosity got the better of him and he opened the scroll.

Within moments, he understood that the majority of these techniques were not useful for him, and only the Kage Shuriken no Jutsu was the only one he could afford to use without too much a dent in his chakra reserves. As it took few seals, he learned it quickly. That was when the other ANBU caught up with him.

Mizuki was no fool, which was why he specialised in stealth, spying and assassination rather then combat. Had he remained loyal, he may have eventually entered the Konoha Black Ops ANBU. As he was no fool, he saw that he would not be able to defeat four ninja that all probably have more combat experience in him. So he fled, leaving the scroll lying there as it would slow him down and get him caught. Throwing a couple smoke bombs and concealing Jutsu around, Mizuki had disappeared and reappeared right in Baisotei's arms. So now he served an Orochimaru wannabe as he couldn't go to the actual Orochimaru as he had failed his mission and all other Villages were barred from him as his status as a Missing-nin.

Currently, he stood at the door of the mansion, acting as the Gatekeeper as he was arguably the most powerful of the band of shinobi that the businessman had gathered around him. He grunted.

He was, as usual, bored as he watched the ninja doing their usual things, sharpening kunai, sparring, training and etc. What he wasn't expecting was for the two sentry's at the corners of the compound in their make-shift tower's to just drop dead, their silhouettes' collapsing like rag dolls.

A large fuuma shuriken came hurtling out of the dense forest surrounding the mansion, tearing apart one of the ninja before heading straight for Mizuki himself. The recent Missing-nin yanked the oversized shuriken from his back with a snarl and threw at the advancing weapon. The two collided and they both imbedded themselves into the ground.

Drawing a kunai, he and the surviving criminal ninja leapt up to find the enemy. As he leapt, he had to twist in mid-air to avoid a barrage on kunai, which while they missed him, his comrades were not so lucky. Four more were cut down. With these skills, Mizuki realised that he was battling against true professionals who had cut down seven of them in the span of ten seconds, leaving only sixteen of them and if things continued, he'd be the only one left.

Now was when he saw the threat that faced them. In his vision, a lone shinobi was crouched sideways against a tree. He bore what he recognised as the armour of Mist ANBU as Mizuki noted the cloak had been discarded and lay on the forest floor. The Mist ANBU braced his legs and leapt forward, parrying a stray kunai with a drawn katana before gutting another of their number, both bodies falling to the floor unceremoniously.

Roaring in rage, Mizuki drew a kunai, an explosive note attached to the end and threw it at the two tangled bodies on the floor.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hisae smiled when he saw the explosion. Dipping her shoulder forward, in one smooth motion she had drawn one of the seven tenken of the Mist.

She noticed the mist rolling in and covering the area, and nodded approvingly at her ANBU subordinates. Leaping forward, she joined the fray, her first action was to let off a round house kick which sent one of the ninja hurtling into the ground, her second cleaving another nin into two separate parts.

Blood, guts and screams splattered the area as she and her current team mates generally slaughtered the low level ninja.

_And this is supposed to be an A-Class Mission. Ha!_

As she tilted her zanbatou side ways to block several shuriken sent her way, she noticed the ground rumble, so she did the smart thing and leapt up into the air just as the floor turned into a mudslide.

_Doryuu Taiga!_

The Doryuu Taiga was an earth based technique designed to turn the ground beneath the opponent, no matter how hard or perfectly horizontal, into a mudslide, sending said target tumbling away. The technique; while not costly in terms of chakra, required nominal chakra control and would be beyond these targets. As such, Hisae deducted that Baisotei Amane had joined the fray.

Landing a distance away from the still running mudslide, she threw her sword so that it began a spinning arc towards the former Jounin. With her hands free she began a line of seals, "_Suiton: Hahonryuu!" _**(Water Release: Rapid Crasher)**

As expected, the balls of water sent hurtling to the Jounin missed, but successfully interrupted any seals he had begun to make. As the Jutsu ended, Hisae's sword came hurtling back towards her, her hands already extended, she caught it. Bringing it forward in a backhanded grip, she sprinted towards Baisotei for hand-to-hand combat.

Swinging her sword in an arc, Amane ducked, a kunai falling into his hand as he went for a thrust at her stomach. She used the hand not clutching the sword to partially yank out a katana, which successfully parried the blow. She raised her foot and jammed the heel into the Rock nin's stomach, sending him tumbling backwards as she allowed the katana to slide back into its sheathe.

She smiled, "I'm surprised a Kage wannabe has the arrogance to believe himself capable of running a village at this level of power."

Coughing, Baisotei glared at her, "What's to say that I'm not only gathering bodyguards from my many enemies?"

"Because you have over twenty ninja guarding you instead of the usual samurai. Even if you hired ninja to protect you, you'd hire a few high level ninja instead of a quantity of low level ones."

His lips quirked at that as he got back on his feet, "You caught me. And as you said; I should hire high level ninja, and you don't seem the part to hold too much loyalty to your current master, so why not join us? When we are settled as a power to be reckoned with; you will be greatly rewarded."

She snorted at the foolishness of the man, "And you call yourself ninja. You aren't even Kage level and you seek to raise your own village. I may be powerful, but I have no illusions to how I would manage should larger measures be taken to suppress this uprising even if I joined. As such, I shall decline and kill you for money and my own gain instead."

He grinned, as his moustached lips twitched," I'm not surprised. Which is why I've been preparing a surprise for you while we've been talking.

Doton: Retsudotenshō!" (**Earth Release: Split Earth Turn Around Palm)**

The earth twisted around, dragging the Mist nin down with a scream. As the earth compacted around her, she abruptly splattered into water.

"Mizu Bunshin!"

Spinning around, just in time to see the huge blade descend, he made a rolling dive to avoid it. What he didn't expect came next from the rolled up sleeves of Hamada Hisae.

"Shikomishindan!"**( Prepared Needle Shot)**

The Jounin froze as the needles penetrated through his vest, hitting him in the shoulder and back. Moments afterwards, he was dead.

Mizuki saw all of this, and as he prepared to flee he was shocked when a jolt went through his body. His saws looked down to see a katana's blade protruding from his chest, extending out from his ragged ANBU uniform.

"ANBU killed by ANBU.", he sighed as his body sagged downwards. His eyes closed just in time to see the rest of his recent comrade ninja die.

Hisae smiled coldly as she stood over the body of Baisotei Amane. She brushed black locks off her face before she looked down at the motionless figure. Lining up the strike, she swung her enormous sword upwards and then letting it fall down from its own weight. A wet 'thunk' sounded as Baisotei's head was separated from his body.

This would earn her enough cash to live off for the next couple weeks _and_ buy Jiraiya-sama's newest addition. If only all her missions were just as easy, she'd be content.

Facing the two ANBU members, one who was cradling a broken arm and several burn marks from the explosive tag, she tilted her head towards them.

"Its time we headed back, boys."

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Naruto lay on his new bed in his new home staring at his new sword. Everything was new, kind of like the entire day. He was made aware of things that he hadn't known about for several years, which he should have known about much longer then that.

To him, his new life was currently a mess, a mess that had to be sorted out. He supposed he'd get used to this as soon as the information properly sunk in. He was a Jinchuuriki, he had an entire organisation bent on tracking down demons and demon-hosts after him and he was the one who had the greatest of the Makai trapped. Fun.

Shaking his head, he turned over on his side. He'd take things as they come, for now, he'd prepare for the future by training and becoming stronger. And meeting his new sensei as soon as the fox was unsealed he supposed.

_Right now, life is strange. Strange, but interesting._

He shrugged as he closed his eyes.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Author's Notes/Review replies 

Khadon: Zomg! I can't believe I did that. Must be cause I haven't written in weeks for this story. Off to edit chapter 6 then.

KPhusion: Thank ye, I knew I was making a mistake somewhere along the line. :P

- Nuebus


End file.
